Fated Friend
by CrazyLikeArt
Summary: High-School fic. A new year starts and friends and enemies old and new meet once more. Ordinary life can be unexpectedly eventful with mysteries, conflicts and love.
1. Chapter 1

OK, this is my first fanfic for MGLN. I appreciate criticism, suggestions and comments. I'll admit right now that I don't have a lot planned out, I know what roles most people will take up (and no, you haven't seen everyone yet) and I have written down their past.  
That aside this is going to be a high-school fic that lacks originality but hopefully makes it up with good characterization and story-telling ability. Well, I did say 'hopefully' and I wanted to give it a try. Now this is taking too much so I'll stop now. Enjoy.

**-o-o-**

**-o-o-**

_The blurry image of a pretty girl. _

_Blonde hair. _

_Sad apologetic red eyes._

_Her gentle voice, saying something she couldn't make out._

_Screams of anguish, of rage. _

_Of hatred._

_It was her fault. _

_Hurt._

_Worthless._

_Useless._

_Pain.  
_

_Her fault._

_Hunger._

_Hurt._

_Every careful step, every breath, a sharp stabbing pain._

_Hunger._

_An hurried step, a sudden jolt._

_Pain pain pain._

_A cough, blood one her hand._

_Fear. Panic. Terror._

_Two arms wrapping around her._

_Warmth._

_Two blue eyes, a gentle voice, a sunny face._

_Safe._

_Another cough._

_Everything becomes dark._

**-o-o-**

"FATE!"

"Whoa- ack!" Fate Testarossa rubbed her bottom after falling from her bed with all the grace of any half-asleep grumpy fifteen year old girl who had just been startled awake by her mother's yelling.

"I'm awake, I'm awake," she called back.

Groaning, she got back on her feet and went to the bathroom ignoring the pair of eyes that had been following her since her embarrassing tumble on the floor.

Fate had never been a morning person and the weird dream she had didn't help. She made a face trying to remember what exactly it was about but it was like trying to grasp smoke. The only thing left from it was a feeling of loneliness and a deep yearning.

Going back to her room to change for the day, she immediately found herself back under the gaze of those expectant blue eyes. She smiled and scratched her dog behind the ears, making her wag her tail happily.

"Good girl, Arf. Now let's go to get breakfast." With one last pat on the dog's head, Fate stood and made her way to the kitchen.

"Good morning, Fate. Ready for your first day?" Lindy smiled at the young blonde while sipping her cup of tea.

"Morning Lindy," she answered while feeding Arf, "I'll be fine."

"Still, I don't want you to push yourself too much, ok? And do make some friends, I don't like seeing you always on your own," the teal haired woman said while pushing anything she could in front of Fate.

"I'll try." For her part the blonde simply grabbed a cookie and a glass of juice refusing everything else.

"I'm serious Fate, Chrono will check you up to see if you're making friends with your new classmates. I know it won't be easy with the age difference, but please try," Lindy asked gently doing her best to encourage the young girl.

"Yes, I will. Promise."

Lindy affectionately ruffled her hair a bit before pushing her out of the house as the blonde was almost late to catch the bus.

Fate made it in time, and as soon as she got on the bus she could see some students wearing the TSAB high school uniform, the same one she herself was wearing. A few of them looked like upperclassmen and were already in groups talking among themselves, while others looked younger and were either shily looking around or whispering worriedly with who was sitting beside them.

_'Well, I'm not even at school yet, so I don't have to look for friends now.'_

Truth be told, she doubted she'd find any as most people seemed to take offence at her being... Well, Fate never really understood what the problem was. Maybe they were simply resentful of her good grades, and admittedly having skipped two years didn't help any. She guessed that no one liked being showed up by a girl two years their junior.

_'Doesn't matter anyway. I've gone fifteen years without friends, I can keep going no problems.'_

With a sigh she looked out of the window, stubbornly ignoring the melancholy weighting in her heart. It wasn't like she was opposed to the idea of having friends, but between the dislike the other girls usually had for her, the way boys eyed her, and the fact she had absolutely no idea on how to befriend people, Fate felt like she'd never fit in. Maybe it'd get better once she was out of school, but somehow she wasn't too sure about that. What if it actually got harder?

The movement from the other students alerted her that they reached the stop and she had to get off.

As she went followed the human current of students toward the school building she felt a bit of apprehension growing within her. The very first day of school, most first years only knew one or two people so they were all looking for new friends like her. That would be a good start... if she hadn't skipped two grades instead of just one. But since she had, she'd been enrolled in the second year, meaning her classmates won't just be two years older but they'd also already have formed their groups of friends.

Fate sighed again. Even if she already felt like an outcast even before the semester could begin, she had promised Lindy she'd try to find a friend and the least she could do after everything the woman had done for her was keeping her word. Clenching her fists, the blonde made her way to the school.

**-o-o-**

"Nanoha! Over here!"

A girl with reddish brown hair styled in an awkward side-ponytail looked up hearing her name called. Her pale blue eyes lit up as soon as she saw and recognized the brown haired girl calling her as well as the really short redhead standing beside her and glaring at everyone who passed them.

"Hayate! Vita!" Nanoha run to them only to be engulfed in a hug by the first girl. A weird hug in which somehow the brunette named Hayate managed to land her hands on her breasts and give a light squeeze.

"I can't believe you fell for that one Nanoha," Vita grumbled from the sidelines.

"Indeed, I didn't expect it to work, but it seems the summer vacation has dulled her senses as well as increased her sensitivity and volume." Hayate grinned broadly at her gaping friend who was now covering her chest while gaping at her.

"You... you... you've gotten worse! Much worse than you were last year! I didn't think that was possible!"

Hayate blinked at her friend's outburst.

"Nanoha-chan, dear, you're making a scene."

"Don't act like I'm the mad one!" Nanoha yelled so loud that she caught the attention of the whole yard.

Indeed, the only one who managed to remain completely apathetic to their squabble was the one standing less than two feet from them. Vita, in fact, was busy glaring at the new freshmen while muttering under her breath. On the bright side, her actions gave Nanoha and Hayate an excuse to change the topic from the use of sexual harassing as a form of greeting.

"Hey Vita-chan, why are you trying to make the first years explode with your eyes? Sore about the fact every single one of them is taller than you?" Nanoha joked good-naturedly, only to get a scathing look herself.

"One of these days I'll have a sudden grow sprout and then you'll be sorry," the smaller girl growled.

"Yeah Nanoha-chan," Hayate interjected, "you shouldn't tease Vita-chan just because she's a late bloomer and hasn't hit puberty yet at the tender age of seventeen."

"...I'll destroy you."

Chuckling, Nanoha engulfed both girls in a group hug while apologizing to the redhead.

"As crazy as it sounds I missed you during summer break. I'm almost happy to be back to school," she confessed before letting them go.

Hayate made a shocked face at the last sentence and was about to reply when a new voice interrupted her.

"Happy to be back? Well, that isn't something I'd have expected to hear from you Takamachi."

The three girls turned to face the new arrival. Light brown hair tied in two tails, golden eyes looking down at them from behind circular frameless glasses.

"Quattro. Did you actually hide in the library and spent the whole summer here waiting to ambush us or do you simply have an horrible good timing for spoiling our time?"

"I wasn't talking with you, Yagami," the girl called Quattro said disdainfully, "I just wanted to ask Takamachi if she plans to join the math club this year, or if she plans to waste whatever brains she has in the kendo club with the lolita brute."

Nanoha flinched at the remark knowing blood will be shed today. Not even two seconds after those words were said, in fact, Vita gleefully stomped on Quattro's foot with all the force she had, which was quite a lot. The physically small girl then grabbed her friends' wrists and dragged them into the building without giving the glasses-wearing girl the chance to do anything.

"Vita, slow down," Hayate pleaded.

"Shut up and hurry, use those longer legs you're so proud of! I'm not getting detention before the school year even starts!"

"Again," Nanoha added with a grin.

"...again," Vita conceded remembering the beginning of the previous year when she actually managed that feat. It was all that damn boy's fault, though, asking her if she got lost and pointing her to the elementary school. She didn't look _that_ young, dammit! Vita never regretted punching him, if anything she was sorry she hadn't managed to break his nose.

"Vita Eisen." the three girls turned to see a tall pink-haired scowling at them.

"Uh... Heiya, Signum. How was your summer? Have you already decided when the first club meeting will be, captain?" Vita tried to be cheerful despite the third-year girl narrowing her eyes.

"Eisen, you and your friend Takamachi are talented and good members, but if you plan to get yourself _and my club_ in trouble, I'll personally remove the both of you."

"You're gonna remove us from the team?" Vita looked really distraught at the thought.

"...yeah. From the team," Signum Wolken agreed.

None of the three friends could quite ignore the pause before that, though.

"Classroom," Nanoha spoke up, "we really, really need to get to our classroom and try to get a good desk. The ones near the windows are to first to go, you know, just like on the bus. See ya around."

This time it was the young Takamachi's turn to drag her friends away.

Trotting down the corridors packed with students, it still didn't take them more than five minutes to find the classroom which proudly displayed the '2-C' sign they were looking for, and once inside they were immediately greeted by two other close friends.

"Arisa! Suzuka! I'm so happy to see you!" Nanoha smiled broadly at them.

"Hey, you didn't say me and Vita you were happy to see us," Hayate whined petulantly.

"I was going to when someone decided to sexually assault me," Nanoha deadpanned.

"Oh my." Suzuka, a girl with long purple hair, giggled and covered her smile with an hand.

Arisa, the blonde standing next to her, simply rolled her eyes at her friends' antics. Her attempt to act cool, however, was betrayed by the worried glances she sent Hayate. The timing with which she chose to cross her arms over her chest as soon as Nanoha had told them what happened was also suspicious.

The group of five started chatting among themselves, catching up and telling what they hadn't already texted each other about their summer. There was a tense moment when Quattro came in and sat down on her desk, which thankfully managed to be on the opposite side of the room.

They were distracted from her glaring daggers at them by a green eyed blond boy wearing glasses coming in soon after her.

"Hey girls, why none of you waited for me? Aren't we friends?" he asked with fake sadness.

"Nope, we're friends only when we go shopping, I need to copy your homework, I need a model for my creations, or we have to move big and heavy things, Yuuno. Actually that last case doesn't count either, you're not reliable enough in the physical strenght department," Hayate answered, causing everyone to giggle at her joke.

"You're evil, who cares about you? Nanoha still likes me, right?"

Faced with her male friend sad and almost imploringly expression, the blue eyed girl couldn't help agreeing with him.

"Sure Yuuno-kun, I'm still your friend," she said, then seeing an opportunity too good to pass up she added "at least until I'll have heavy boxes to move around. Then I'll find another boy friend."

This prompted a round of laughter from the whole group and a slap on her back from Hayate. Their happy time together was soon cut short when the bell rang announcing the start of the first hour of the first day of the school year.

Nanoha, who on virtue of loosing at rock-paper-scissors was sitting in the first row near the window, turned back to look at Vita and Hayate who, thanks to the latter's tactical application of paper against rock, were sitting just behind her. Suzuka and Arisa were behind them in the third row while Yuuno had actually claimed the seat next to Nanoha as he always sat in the first row.

"Do you know who we have now?" she asked.

"No, I just hope it isn't Sc-" Vita couldn't finish her thought as the class door was slammed open none to gently by the very same teacher she was hoping to _not _see until... well, to be honest Vita had hoped he had an accident during summer break and wouldn't be able to come back tortur- teaching. Or if not an accident, he could have been kidnapped. Or gotten lost. Or arrested.

Someone as evil as Jail Scaglietti must have done something that would warrant an imprisonment sentence, Vita was sure of it.

"Welcome back to another exciting year of learning everyone," Scaglietti began with a big smile on his face that only increased his students' apprehension.

"Now, as a first thing, headmistress Carim has asked me to introduce you to your new classmate, miss..." He trailed off and took out a paper from his pocket from which he read the name.

"..Testarossa. Who apparently, despite her young age, showed more than enough intelligence to join this class. Not really hard since with few exceptions -here he made a nod toward Quattro and threw a glance at Nanoha- the average here is lower than Eisen-san's shoulders."

Vita resumed her counting the days separating her from graduation from where she left it before summer vacation. As soon as this rotten rat didn't have his title of teacher over her she was going to splat him. Quattro, who snickered quite loudly, was going to get hers during lunch break.

Nanoha glanced at her friend, worried that the redhead may do something that would get her expelled. Once she was reassured she wasn't going to throw her desk at their teacher, she turned back to the front of the class where _very_ beautiful girl was standing shyly.

Wait, what?

The brunette blinked but the beautiful girl was still there. Furthermore, she talked and did so with a soft, melodic voice.

"I'm Fate Testarossa, from today on I'll be your classmate. Please take care of me." She bowed formally.

"Scaglietti-sensei said you were younger than us?" Quattro very rudely, in Nanoha's opinion, asked. It wasn't even a proper question to tell the truth, but a statement said as a question. Nanoha didn't know why it irritated her so much but if she could get away with it she'd have thrown something at Quattro.

"Yes, I'm fifteen, I skipped two grades," Fate said looking down to avoid making eye-contact with anyone.

Those words caused loud whispers to travel through the classroom. Nanoha herself didn't know how to react to the news except feeling a certain kinship with Vita because quite frankly, Testarossa was both taller and more endowed than her. While being fifteen, which meant she's probably still growing. Talk about feeling inadequate.

Scaglietti choose this moment to grab their attention once again.

"Very well Testarossa, you can take this papers, sit down, keep one and pass the rest. Since all presents managed to be admitted to the second year you should be able to score at least a 70 in this test about your summer homework. Of course I'll be deeply disappointed with anyone who doesn't actually reach a 80, but I'm used to disappointment working with high schoolers."

Horror was too weak of a word to express how the class felt.


	2. Chapter 2

And here I am again, unexpectedly soon. I just got in a writing mood. With this I'll wrap up the first day of school, introduce more characters and let you know a bit more about them. Brownie points to everyone who'll talk with me about pairings, as you'll find out reading this chapter, my mind goes in multiple directions. I love to intertwine people's stories and making connections and coincidences happen. Anyway, enjoy~

**-o-o-**

**-o-o-**

_Horror was too weak of a word to express how the class felt._

"A test as first thing in the first hour of the first day? Is this even allowed? Isn't there a rule that forbids it?" Vita said this louder than she intended to since the professor actually heard and answered her.

"Not at all Eisen, and if you had read the whole school rules book _like every student should have_ -he glared accusingly at the whole class- you'd know it. Now, get down to your test or I'll make everything in my power to throw you back in the first class, am I clear?"

"Yes," Vita grumbled.

Scaglietti put his hands on the girl's desk and leaned down staring at her.

"Yes, _sensei,_" she corrected herself.

"Better. Now let's see if Takamachi and Shiruba are still the only ones who understand what I'm trying to teach your ignorant rotten-by-hormones teenaged brains."

While Vita turned her attention to her test and started her valiant efforts at murdering the paper, Nanoha caught Quattro sneering at her out of the corner of her eye.

Really, she wished Scaglietti would stop comparing their grades, she didn't think his habit of promoting competitiveness would do much for improving the overall average grades of the class. The only thing his method increased, in fact, was the ego of the four-eyed witch who just mouthed 'I'm still better than you' to her.

Nanoha decided to ignore her, it wasn't like she wanted to be the number one in class, she was happy with having decent average grades, and math just happened to be a subject she was good in. She almost considered doing bad just to get Quattro off her back, but purposely damaging her Grade Point Average was beyond stupid as Yuuno liked to remind her.

Speaking of Yuuno, he was muttering about stupid numbers that made no sense. The brunette found it ironic how her blonde friend could remember all the dates of both important and trivial historical events, but if a number wasn't about a date than he couldn't wrap his mind around it.

Shaking her head to clear her mind, she turned her attention to her test and started working on it.

'W_ell, the test isn't really bad, it's mainly about last year's program. Oh, this problem is really similar to one we had to solve as summer work._'

Nanoha's relaxed optimism wasn't wholly shared by her classmates and some began to write frantically as time passed. Of course, Quattro had to show off handing in her test five whole minutes before time was up, all the while her giving a condescending look at Vita, who for all intents and purposes looked like she was stabbing her test with her pen.

The bespectacled girl also turned to Nanoha with a smug expression, but she ignored her. While the young Takamachi had also finished her test, she preferred looking over her answers again until the time was up. As far as Nanoha was concerned this wasn't a race.

"And... two, one, time's up! Get me those papers and don't worry everyone, I'll have them corrected before next week. It's never too soon to get the first zero of the year. On a side note, if any of you really scored zero then I'll be able to kick you out before you get familiar with this place." He was downright cheerful at the thought.

"Such a nice teacher, one has to wonder why everyone tends to call in sick during his class," Yuuno whispered to Nanoha, making her giggle.

While she herself had it quite easy as Scaglietti tended to be much more lenient with those who got high grades in his subject, the brunette couldn't really like a teacher who loved to pick on one of her best friends.

"Scrya, I hope you got a good enough score since I've heard you had the best grades in the school for history class last year. Someone with such studying abilities doing poorly in my class... I might take it personally."

...Ok, make it a teacher who picked on two of her best friends. Although maybe he had simply heard Yuuno's joke. The first row wasn't the best place to sit in to tell them.

The class as a whole breathed a sigh of relief as soon as Scaglietti got out of the classroom at the end of the hour. The rest of the morning was relatively more calm, in comparison with the surprise test it almost felt like they had gotten back on vacation and soon enough it was lunch break.

Nanoha stretched her arms and legs, not being used to sit for so long anymore, and turned around to ask her friends where they wanted to eat.

"Did I miss something?" Not really the question she had thought to make, but it was the logical one when she saw Hayate restraining Vita in a choke hold.

"No, just the usual damage control before Vita can make a bloody mess in a public building." Arisa shrugged indifferently.

"Let me go Hayate," said girl protested, "I owe that damn four-eyes a black one. She'll still have three good ones after all."

"Wow Eisen, did you manage to make the count all on your own?" Amber eyes flashed with malice as Suzuka had to move in to help Hayate.

Nanoha shook her head in resignation and looked around waiting for the other girl to leave the room. Their classmates were ignoring the argument, although a couple were glaring at Quattro since she had the tendency to act arrogantly towards almost everyone on daily basis.

Then her eyes landed on two burgundy gem shifting between the two contending girls. Nanoha couldn't believe that between the shock of the test and everything else she had to note down during the morning she almost forgot about the new girl. Fate.

Now that she could observe her she could confirm that her first impression was correct. Long, shiny, soft-looking blonde hair framed a gorgeous face with graceful features. What took her breath away, though, where her eyes. Fate had such pretty eyes, so expressive and just beautiful, even if right now they were showing a mix between confusion and concern...

Oh, right, Vita needed to be held back from following Quattro outside and murdering her where there were witnesses. It took Nanoha some effort, but she shook herself out of her daze.

"Vita come on, forget it, we should just go outside and eat lunch. You remember what Signum said about re-joining the kendo club, that if you beat up another student she won't let us?" Miraculously enough, reasoning seemed to work.

"Yeah, what Nanoha-chan said. Besides, you know you should let her be the one to beat others up," Hayate interjected.

Nanoha frowned, "What do you mean with that?"

"She means to say that you have a knack for hitting people and turning them into good guys you can be friends with," Arisa said.

"What? That's not, I didn't..." Everyone gave her a flat look, "Ok, so maybe I had to smack Arisa. And Vita. And throttle Hayate a bit. But those were exceptions!"

"Nanoha, dear, exceptions are the less frequent ones," Suzuka noted gently. One really couldn't tell if she was really trying to be supportive or if she enjoyed teasing the pony-tailed girl.

"Well, we should eat our lunch before the break ends." Yuuno diffused the situation with a smile.

"Right Yuuno-kun, just..." Nanoha trailed off looking around for the new member of their class, but it seemed that she had managed to disappear in the brief time she had taken her eyes off of her.

"Nanoha?" Yuuno put an hand on her shoulder looking at her questioningly.

"Nothing, let's eat."

'_Mou, I wanted to talk with her... It must be hard for her being in a new class where everyone's older... And her eyes are so pretty, but there's also something familiar about them...'_

"Earth to Nanoha, stop spacing out and walk. The sun is shining, the summer is still in the air and I refuse to stay in this room any more than I have to." Arisa poked her to better make her point.

Letting go of her thoughts about the blonde mystery, she hurried to gather her things and follow her friends outside.

"Anyway, tell me when you guys go to see Signum, there's something I need to see her about," Hayate requested looking at Vita and Nanoha.

Curious, the latter glanced at the short haired brunette, but it was Vita who asked "Something? What is it? It cannot be club arrangements, _no one_ ever follows both kendo and cosplay."

"Technically it's the sewing club, they didn't let me have a cosplay club," Hayate lamented.

"The name changes, but in the end what you do is the same." Yuuno couldn't hide his mirth at his friend's plight.

"Oh, shut up you, you're just sore because you cannot create an archeology club since there aren't enough people interested."

Nanoha giggled at her friends' banter, at least until she turned a corner and something slammed in her midsection, knocking her down. Luckily she had held onto her bento and didn't let it go, or she'd have lost lunch and made a mess of her uniform on top of hurting her bottom.

"Waaah, I'm so sorry sempai!"

Nanoha blinked and looked at the girl who had just run into her. She had short blue hair and green eyes. From the way she had addressed her, she was probably a first year. Once she had got off from her and stood, she offered her an hand to help her up all the while apologizing for not looking where she was going.

"Don't worry," Nanoha reassured her with a smile, "I wasn't paying attention myself."

"..."

Nanoha looked at her friends asking with her eyes what to do when the younger girl kept staring at her without letting go of her hand, but they were having too much fun observing the exchange to be useful.

"Uh... I'm Takamachi Nanoha, from class 2-C." When nothing else comes to mind the least you can do is introduce yourself.

"Ah! I'm Nakajima Subaru, from class 1-B." And she _still_ hadn't let go of her hand.

"Nice to meet you Subaru-chan. Do you need any help?"

Green eyes beamed at her,

"Yes! You see, Tea and I, Teana is my best friend and is in the same class as me, we were going to eat lunch in the cafeteria, but I had forgotten to pick up my wallet, so I went back to take it, but then I didn't remember which way I had to go, so I picked a random direction and started to run since that's what I've heard one has to do when lost, and then I slammed into you."

"...So you're looking for the cafeteria?" Nanoha had to make sure, because the flow of words that had just assaulted her had left her a bit disoriented.

"Yes!" Subaru was certainly energetic.

"I'll show you the way, then. Just...can I have my hand back?"

A blushing girl and a minute alter, the little group reached the cafeteria where they were introduced to Teana Lanster, a girl with long orange hair tied in two ponytails and a violent temperament on par with Vita's. After she thanked them for helping "this stupid kuckle-head" she had dragged Subaru away by the ear.

The six second year students then decided to just take a table and eat there instead of going outside, since they were there and had already wasted a lot of time.

"Anyway, before this whole mess started, weren't you going to tell us what do you want to see Signum about, Hayate-chan?" No one ever suspected it before knowing her, but Suzuka had a weakness for gossip.

"Ok, but this is just between us," Hayate said seriously, waiting for all of her friends to nod their agreement.

"Well, it happened during summer break, more precisely a month or so ago. I was going back home after eating at that cosplay cafe that had just opened, you know the one near the mall. It was great, well, the pastries were nowhere near our Nanoha's bakery level, but the costumes and the waitress there wer-"

"Hayate, unless you saw Signum working there and have photos to prove it, skip the details about your fetish," Vita interrupted before the story could get derailed.

"Right. Anyway, I was walking through the park when a boy with horrible aim who was playing with his friends kicked their ball a bit too strongly and bam!" Hayate slammed her hand on the table to make the sound effect more realistic, "Right in my face."

A couple of snickers left her audience, but they were mostly muffled since they wanted to know what happened next, and if she got mad she'd probably refuse to give them the whole story.

"It wasn't that bad, but it left a red mark and I did fall on my ass. I was still sitting on the ground when our valiant captain Ritten appeared and helped me."

There was a pause while the storyteller took a sip of water. Suzuka, who was munching on her rice, swallowed and eyed her friend suspiciously.

"It can't be only this."

"Correct!" Hayate was definitely enjoying the whole situation, having everyone hang on her every word. "She insisted that I should get the wound checked, and said she knew of someone who could do that and lived nearby. Then, ignoring my protests, she dragged me there.

"We walked a couple of blocks down the road and got to a nice house. However I noticed that something was wrong very quickly. You know when Signum scowls and makes that expression which makes it seem as if the sky is darkening, the sun is turning cold and the world is ending?

"Well, as soon as she noticed the car parked in front of the house she made it. That didn't stop her, though, on the contrary she pulled me more forcefully toward the door and rang the bell."

Hayate paused again and stole a bite from Yuuno's lunch.

"Hey!"

She grinned wickedly at him.

"Well, anyway, when the door opened the most beautiful amazing crimson eyes looked at us." Nanoha was lucky in that she wasn't drinking nor swallowing right then, because there was no doubt she'd have choked on it.

"Her name's Reinforce Himmel, she has silver hair and the body of a top model."

'_Oh, it's someone else_' that thought of Nanoha's was followed by the dismissal of her friend's exaggerated comment about this Reinforce's eyes. Less than an hour ago, in fact, she had seen burgundy red eyes which were certainly more beautiful than this unknown woman's or anyone else's.

"She lives with Shamal, which is the one Signum wanted to look at me by the way, and is a police officer," the brunette went on.

"Wait! Stop right there," Suzuka interrupted, "Signum dragged you to Klarer-sensei's home? Why does she even know where she lives? Unless..."

"Bingo! The proud captain of our kendo team has a crush the size of the Tokyo tower on our school nurse. Which incidentally explains why she tried to kill me last year when I made that joke about a nurse costume," Hayate chuckled.

"So your common interest is Klarer-sensei?" Yuuno asked.

"No, you stupid dim-witted ferret! Our common _problem_ is that Shamal and Reinforce live together," Hayate hissed with no small amount of frustration, "Sure, they said they did that because they've been friends since junior high, and while Shamal was studying in college and Rein-chan at the police academy they were short on money, so sharing the bills was the logical choice, but..."

Her friends looked at each other while Hayate poked what was left of her lunch depressingly.

Vita was mouthing "Rein-chan" as if she couldn't quite grasp how Hayate came up with a cutesy nickname for a woman that was likely more than five years her senior and she met only once. Although Hayate did have a tendency to call everyone, even teachers, by their given name.

"So you have fallen for this Reinforce. Hard. Not really surprising, I'd have bet my whole dvd collection that you'd have gone for someone who wears an uniform, but why didn't you tell us until just now?" Suzuka seemed offended at having being left in the dark so long, "Moreover, you find out about Sigunm's secret crush and _you didn't tell me_?"

"Well, this explains why Ritten-san always personally takes the ones injured during practice to the nurse's office," Yuuno considered.

"I think you're right. And here I thought she was just responsible and feeling guilty every time, while in truth she was probably hoping for more injured." Vita felt a bit worried at the realization, it was after all an additional reason the pink haired older girl might have to carry out her threats.

"I don't know, I think it's cute. I'd have never thought Signum to be the type to have a crush on anyone," Nanoha thought out loud.

"And I wouldn't have thought you to be the type to not say a word about your new boyfriend Nanoha-chan," Suzuka said deciding that Hayate was a lost cause.

"My what?" confusion was evident on the girl's face.

"Your new boyfriend. Tall, red hair, brown eyes, you met him on the sea. Rings any bell?" Suzuka insisted.

"Oh, him! He's not my boyfriend, he was just... let's call it a summer fling." Nanoha blushed a bit.

"And you guys are mad at me when _she_ hides something like this?" Hayate gesticulated wildly with her arms until she lost her grip on her chopsticks.

They went sailing through the air across the cafeteria in an almost straight line, until they impacted violently with the back of a third year girl with long dark blue almost purplish hair.

"Ouch. Damn it Yagami, be careful!" She yelled from the other side of the wide room.

"Sorry Ginga-chan," Hayate called back waving cheerfully at the older girl.

The whole group from 2-C, however, in the light of the recent knowledge the short haired brunette shared with them, couldn't help but notice Signum helping the other girl and asking her if she needed to go to the infirmary.

"Hey, isn't Ginga's last name Nakajima? She also looks a lot like Subaru-chan, do you think they're related?" Nanoha observed.

"Yeah, whatever, tell us about this guy you met during the summer." Arisa dismissed her observation.

"There's nothing to say, he was nice, not bad looking and kind," Nanoha reported indifferently, "I'm more curious about how Suzuka found out since the only person who knew about him was... Oh, right, I forgot Kyouya-niichan cannot keep his mouth shut around Shinobu."

"And oneechan tells me everything." Suzuka make a victory sign, "Now give us details."

"There isn't much to tell, we spent some time together during those two weeks I spent at the sea, went on a couple of dates and then we went our separate ways. It was nothing serious."

"Did you kiss?" Hayate could be just as much of a gossip as Suzuka, especially when it came down to her best friends' love lives.

"Y-yeah, once." Nanoha blushed a bit, then anticipating the next question she continued, "No, we didn't make out."

"Lame," Hayate commented, "you've gone out with what, three guys, and turned all of them down after _at most_ a month. Seriously, you never ever even got to second base."

"I just don't feel comfortable with them. Sure I may be a bit attracted to them and find them fun and nice, but they don't really... I don't know I have this idea of how real love should feel like, like my whole world is being turned upside down, and none of them even came close," the young Takamachi admitted, "I'm delusional, right?"

"I don't think so," Yuuno said passionately, "I agree with you, you shouldn't settle for someone you feel isn't the one for you, rather you should keep looking. I'm sure you'll find someone to share a deeper connection with."

"Thanks Yuuno-kun." Nanoha smiled at him.

**-o-o-**

Fate nibbled her lunch on the rooftop. She knew that this wasn't the right place to be in order to make friends, on the contrary it was the place to be to be alone, but she couldn't help it. The morning had gone horribly right from the start.

While she didn't really mind doing a test, the vibes Scaglietti-sensei gave out were not positive ones. He seemed to encourage a competitive atmosphere in the class and had way much more fun than proper in mocking some students and playing favorites. That was something that gave Fate goosebumps.

And then there were those two, Shiruba and Takamachi, the ones who had had the highest scores last years if she understood it correctly.

The first was also the best out of the two -again if Fate didn't misunderstand- but she was also quite arrogant if her holier-than-you attitude was anything to go by, while the latter seemed much more open judging by the group of friends she interacted with.

Just before lunch break there was that almost-brawl that strengthen her first impression of both, with the glasses-wearing Shiruba mocking that small red haired girl and Takamachi trying to calm her.

'A_nd she has kind eyes..._'

Fate looked at the horizon thinking about when she made a brief eye-contact with that girl. Her eyes were blue like the sky and so calming and warm. She had the impression she had seen eyes like that once before. It was on the tip of her tongue, but...

"There you are." A male voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Chrono," she greeted him with a gentle smile.

"Mom asked me to check on you. How was your first day so far?" the dark haired boy asked.

"Good. I heard you're already back to being student council president. You have a lot of work now, don't you?"

"Yeah, well, I have to organize the schedules of the clubs, make sure there won't be problems between those who want the same areas and such, but I can always make time for my favorite little sister." He grinned at her.

Fate blushed a bit at his care, making time to check on her even when he had so much to do. He really was a great brother, it always amazed her how he and Lindy could accepted her as part of the family so readily and completely.

"Speaking of the clubs, I got you some coupons. You said you'd like to join one, right?"

"Yes," the blonde answered, "I... I wanted to look at the track and field club and..."

"...and?" he encouraged her.

"And the kendo club. You said it was a lot of fun when you were part of it." Her face turned red.

Chrono ruffled her hair grinning widely, "Aw, my sister is so cute, all flustered admitting she wants to follow in her big brother's footsteps."

Fate fidgeted a bit while avoiding his eyes and blushing even more.

"But are you sure you want to join both? I mean, it is technically possible, the track team meets on Tuesdays and Fridays while the kendo team meets on Mondays and Thursdays, but can you do both and study without straining yourself too much?"

The red eyed girl nodded, "I'm confident in that. They're physical activities, so I can use them to vent some stress and clear my mind."

"Ok, if you're sure. Just a warning, in the kendo team there's a little girl with red hair in two braids, she's a second year called Vita Eisen. Be careful because she has quite the temper and a lot of strength."

"Eisen? She's in my class, she tried to beat up another girl but was held back by her friends," Fate told him, "How do you know her?"

"Oh, she's in 2-C, right. Well, remember last year, when I came back with a bruise on my face after the first day of school? That was her, she almost broke my nose." Chrono looked a bit annoyed at the memory.

'_So it was her. I would have never thought she could hit aniki like that, after all he's rather strong himself. Appearances really are deceiving, although the fact it took two people to hold her back earlier should have been obvious proof of that._'

"I'm going back to the cafeteria, I promised Ginga I'd have joined her there. She's the vice-president and a big help, but nonetheless I'll probably have to stop after the end of classes today, there's still so much things to work out... Tell mom I'll be a bit late, ok?"

"Don't worry, I will."

"And come down to the cafeteria, or even the garden one of these days. I'll let this one time slide since it's the first day, but eating here by yourself doesn't really help you in making friends," Chrono chided her gently.

"Thank you, Chrono." Fate gave him a grateful little smile.


	3. Chapter 3

I don't think I've ever written so much so fast, and I'm having a lot of fun too. I usually answer to review by PM'ing back, but since I couldn't do that for yuki I'll tell you here now that yes, Chrono is a really good big brother. I wanted him to act like a real sibling with Fate, one who gets along very well with his sister. You'll see more of that in this chapter. Older siblings roaming around, well it's not that hard to believe. A lot of younger siblings go to the same school as their elders in real life too.  
The very big and unbelievable coincidences revolve around Fate, one is obvious if you pay attention, another I've given only the first, smallest of hint in this chapter. Feel free to try and guess what I'm talking about. =D  
Now, before these notes become longer than the actual chapter...

**-o-o-**

**-o-o-**

Fate Testarossa had many reasons to despise her young age.

Among those figured the feeling of powerlessness she had whenever she couldn't help those in need or when she was forced to ask her adoptive family for help after they already did so much.

Another reason was the difficulty she had in relating with others, since she was more mature than her peers but the older boys and girls didn't like including a younger girl in their circle. Well, _some_ boys would actually like that, but those were the kind of guys she'd rather not deal with.

The reason she wished she was older that was at the forefront of her mind at the moment, though, was much simpler.

"Sorry Fate-chan, no coffee until you're sixteen, I grew up with that rule and you'll do the same." Lindy cheerfully sipped her tea watching her blonde daughter stumble around like a grumpy zombie. She'd miss this once little Fate will have access to her caffeine.

The red eyed girl looked around with a quizzical look that made every single bone in Lindy's body scream at the sheer cuteness of it and was pulling the woman to fuss over her daughter, something Chrono, the ungrateful son he was, never quite allowed her. Not even when he was five years old and his angry expression was just so utterly adorable that...

"Lindy, where are Arf's cookies? And why is Chrono's bento still here?"

The Harlaown matriarch felt a little pang of sorrow at hearing the blonde using her name instead of just calling her mom. It was a dull ache that never faded away, exactly like Fate's block that prevented her from using the word. Then she actually processed her questions and she pinched her nose.

"If I have to take a guess, I'd say your brother picked up Arf's cookies instead of his own lunch in his hurry to get to school early for his 'meeting with the student council'." Lindy made quotations marks in the air with her hands.

"As if I didn't know he's trying to _casually_ meet that college girl he's had a crush on since last year when she was still in high school. I think her name's Amy, right?"

"Two cases solved in less than two minutes. I can see why you're so successful detective Harlaown." Fate stood on attention and saluted her.

The teal haired woman chuckled while reciprocating the gesture. The fact she was wearing her police uniform made it look more official than the joke it was.

"I'll text Chrono telling him I have his lunch," Fate said putting it into her backpack, then she knelt down in front of Arf and put both her hands on the dog's neck stroking it affectionately, "I'm sorry I can't give you a cookie even if you've been good, I'll make it up to you later."

Arf obviously couldn't understand the words, but being on the receiving end of her owner's pampering she responded by licking said owner's face.

"Wash your face before you leave Fate." Mirth danced in Lindy's voice.

The woman remembered a time when Arf's action would have made her fret. The dog had been just a little stray puppy when Fate picked her up, but thanks also to the wolf's blood in her veins she had grown. And grown. And kept growing. The end result was a reddish orange wolfish dog who could put her head on the kitchen table without having to stand on her back legs.

It was lucky that Arf had been docile and really receptive. Fate, under Lindy's watch and thanks to the woman's calling in a couple of favors, had trained the massive dog thoroughly with the help of the same dog trainers that handle the police dogs. Which incidentally gave Lindy an excuse to bring Arf with her at work every now and then.

Despite the no coffee rule and having to fix herself again due to canine assault, Fate got on the bus on time. It was Thursday or, for those who preferred keeping the count, the fourth day of school. Nothing much had happened in the past few days as both students and teachers were trying to settle in the routine after the shock of the first day.

Fate herself was failing at her objective of befriending someone, _anyone_ at school. She had tried eating in the cafeteria, which was nerve wracking, going to the library, walking down corridors, staying wherever the most students concentrated, but she had a natural ability for fading in the background.

Well, she thought she caught some groups looking at her and whispering among themselves, but that could have easily been her seeing things that weren't there. Maybe she should have a more aggressive approach, but what exactly was she supposed to do or say?

Fate sighed wistfully while walking down the corridor toward her class. When he reached it she slipped inside and blinked at the peculiar scene going on.

"I'm telling the truth, I feel sick!"

"If you really were sick you wouldn't have come to school, and you certainly wouldn't have started to say it only after we reminded you we have Scaglietti the first two hours!" Arisa Bannings had a firm grip on the girl who had just professed being ill.

"I thought I could endure it, but I really really need to go to the infirmary now!" Vita Eisen, despite being obviously healthy, had taken a position and she was determined to defend it or die trying.

"Vita-chan, you know that it's better getting your test back today with everyone else rather than being singled out next time," a girl with long purple hair, Suzuka Tsukimura Fate thought her name was, pleaded.

"Not if I'm missing next time too!"

The blonde looked at the rambunctious display her three classmates where putting on and caught the other three people who usually where part of that same group sitting not far away and observing their friends in a resigned manner.

Sky blue eyes met hers for an interminable moment before the blonde turned and hurried to her desk. Those eyes were just like the ones that turned her life around that day so long ago. Same shade, same shape, same warmth...

'_Could she really be the one from that time? What would be the chances of that?_'

"Good morning everyone, it's a great day today, isn't it?" A boisterous voice pulled the blonde from her thoughts.

Quattro Shiruba had a self-satisfied look as she strolled to her seat ignoring Eisen's growls at her. Fate saw her amber eyes searching for the two that had occupied her mind, and upon making contact a sneer appeared on Shiruba's face.

"So... Scaglietti-sensei will give us the test result today. Wanna bet on who's going to get the highest score?"

"Not really Quattro," Takamachi answered, "I'm not really interested in who scores higher as long as everyone's grades are good enough to pass."

Fate smiled hearing that, she liked how that sounded, and not just because it was said by the brunette's voice.

"Yeah, sure. Keep saying that Takamachi. Although I guess that is all the midget you like to hang out can hope for."

"Hey Quattro, do you know what one metaphorical ass plus one physical ass make? A person, you." Yagami spat back making most of the class laugh at the other girl.

Whatever comeback could have been done was stopped as the door slammed open. Why a teacher was allowed to go around slamming doors was beyond anyone's understanding.

"My cute little students," Scaglietti began in a cheerful mood, "I know you were looking forward to today! Because today is the day you get your tests back! Now, who can tell me how these papers are graded?"

"With a number from 1 to 100?" someone from the back guessed.

"Good answer, but the correct one is actually 'with a number from 0 to 100'. You see, the reason everyone always gets at least one point is because all you have to do to get it is write your name on your test. But every rule has its exception, right miss Yagammel Hayate?"

The professor, who had been pacing around holding their tests, stopped in front of Hayate and dropped her test on her desk.

"A very stupid way to loose one point, but nonetheless you managed to get an acceptable grade, unlike Eisen." He took a step and dropped Vita's test, "A meager 63. Is that really the best you could do? My hamster could do more productive things with the paper you used for your test."

Fate waited as he went on handing back the tests, calling out the grades and adding a scathing remark to those who weren't up to his standards. She really didn't like how this teacher handled things.

"Scrya," he said glaring at a blond boy sitting in the first row, "I told you I'd have taken it personally if you didn't do well."

Said boy stared back trying to hide his anxiety.

"You got 82, I guess you're off the hook for today." He handed him his paper while Scrya practically melted in relief, and took a step to stand in front of the desk beside his.

"Takamachi, correcting your test was a breath of fresh air. Try to rub off your friends, and share with them the wonders of knowledge, will you? For now enjoy your 91."

Fate observed as she shuffled uncomfortably. She could sympathize, Scaglietti-sensei seemed to be a natural at upsetting everyone around him.

"Whose turn is it, let's see... but of course, Shiruba! A light in the mediocrity of this class, excellent as always, 94," Scaglietti stated proudly offering the paper at the girl, who took it with a smug smile.

At this point there was only one more test in his hands and Fate knew whose it was. She really wanted nothing more that drop and the floor, dug an hole, and disappear. Being the last one to receive her grade couldn't be a good sign.

"And who do we have left for last, if not our newest member who joined us this year? Testarossa, I've heard you're quite the child prodigy."

While he leaned down to rest his elbows on her desk, the blonde student caught sight of 'the light in the mediocrity looking at her with a mix of pity and haughtiness. The teacher slipped her paper on the desk under her eyes.

"Would you please read out loud your grade to your classmates?"

She'd have preferred stabbing herself with her pen, but she couldn't really tell him that. Knowing that in the next three seconds her already meager chances to integrate would be obliterated, Fate steeled her nerves and complied with his request.

"98."

The silence was so deep she could hear the voice of the teacher in the nearby class lecturing in English.

Fate looked down feeling her face turning red, but not before catching surprised and happy blue eyes.

"98! Yes, my dear Testarossa, you're a shining precious jewel for math teachers everywhere! The only reason you didn't get 100 is because you didn't write down some passages in the fourth problem. You can ask my former best student Shiruba about which passages must be written down and which ones you can skip later." He beamed at her and patted her head.

'Y_es, he definitely has a gift for making people uncomfortable. At least, I hope it isn't just me who feels this way,_' she thought distressed, trying not to bolt from her seat.

"And here, a prize for doing so good. It's strawberry flavor but if you don't like it I have lemon ones too."

'_Ok, this situation has just become beyond disturbing. Doesn't he realize how that sounded?_'

He either didn't or simply enjoyed unleashing new kinds of wrongness upon his students. Fate was so mortified by the whole ordeal that she couldn't even look up to take notes from the blackboard for the rest of the morning. As such she missed much of the looks her classmates where throwing her.

When the bell announcing lunch break rang, she hurriedly took her things and walked as fast as she could without breaking school rules toward the cafeteria. Chrono had texted her back earlier saying they could have lunch there together.

Once there she looked around and, seeing he wasn't there yet, sat down on an empty table and waited for him. He arrived a minute later, ditched his friends, and came to seat with her.

"Thank you Fate, for a second I really feared I'd have had to eat these for lunch." He took out the transparent bag with Arf's dog treats and slid them on the table for her to take while fate did the same with his bento.

"It was no problem at all Chrono, I only wish I had something else for Arf this morning." She smiled at him.

They ate their lunch making small talk and occasionally trading parts of their bentos between them, with Fate collecting most of the tomatoes but yielding the shrimps, when a thought occurred to her and made her frown.

"Anyway why did you want to have lunch with me? I mean, obviously I'm happy to spend some time with you, but you didn't have to ditch your friends."

"Ah... Well, you see... I wanted to ask you a favour." Chrono scratched his cheek nervously while his face gained some color.

"Sure, what is it?" Fate had to admit she was a bit curious as this was unusual for her brother.

He looked around and leaned forward to whisper at her so that no one could eavesdrop.

"I want you to come with me at the mall this afternoon and help me find a gift for Amy. I want to confess to her, you're a girl too so you could give me some advice to find the right words and the perfect gift, right?" he grabbed her hands looking at her pleadingly.

"I don't know... I don't think I'd be any help Chrono, you know I'm not really good with any kind of relathionship..." She really wanted to give him an hand but she wasn't the best choice.

"You're the only one I can ask! Please Fate, do this for me? I'll beg on my knees if I have to!"

"No! I mean, yes, I'll come with you." God help her, if he made such a scene she'd have to leave the country, no, the planet!

"Thank you, you're the best," Chrono said happily, giving her a hug, "your lessons end at four, right? Mine too, so I'll come pick you up from your class and then we can go to the mall. See ya later."

Seeing him happy like that, Fate couldn't help smiling at his back before grabbing Arf's cookies and standing to go back to class.

**-o-o-**

Earlier that morning, when Jail was implementing his psychological warfare under the guise of giving out test results, Nanoha already knew that the day would have been a roller-coaster.

It had started quite normally, with Vita trying to call sick as soon as someone reminded her what day it was. Thankfully Arisa and Suzuka had that covered, as she knew that her red haired friend would only get more frantic if she tried to calm her down and Hayate would sooner join her and drag her out of school grounds than make her sit down.

It was during that time that in a brief endless instant she caught those amazing burgundy eyes looking at her. She didn't know what it was, but there was _something_ in them that made Nanoha restless.

The first up of her morning was turned down with the arrival of Quattro, who went to try to win her personal crusade in order to make humanity kiss the ground she walked on. Nanoha couldn't understand that girl, sure she was smart, but one thing is being proud of your result, another is belittling others.

Nanoha knew it wasn't likely to happen, but she'd really like to see how Quattro would react if one of their classmates scored higher than her for once.

'_Eh, imagine what face she'd do if Vita-chan beat her._'

Her daydream was cut short by the psycho they called their math teacher coming in in his usual reserved and calm manner that consisted in attempting to take the door off its hinges with brutal force. Something a student would get detention over.

"...every rule has its exception, right miss Yagammel Hayate?"

Nanoha had to bite down her fist to keep from laughing out loud at Hayate's horror-stricken face as she took her paper. She noted Arisa doing the same, while Yuuno's and Suzuka's shoulders were trembling as they tried to keep a straight face. The cosplay maniac had just earned a nickname for life.

Nanoha flinched in sympathy when he went to Vita, and let out a breath of relief when Suzuka and Arisa did well enough. Yuuno-kun's turn was more unnerving, what with their stare-down. She patted her friend's back when he turned into a puddle of relieved goo.

After Yuuno, it was her turn and she shuffled uncomfortably under his scrutiny. Scaglietti-sensei was a creep, really, being praised didn't really make this whole test-restitution ceremony any more enjoyable.

"Shiruba! A light in the mediocrity of this class, excellent as always, 94." How the hell Quattro managed to smile happily at him was a mystery almost as much as Signum love lif-

'_Oh wait, that doesn't work anymore._'

Nanoha banned the stray thought and ignored Vita pretending to throw up in favour of fixing her gaze on the very last test Scaglietti was still holding in his hands. The test that belonged to the beautiful girl with the most captivating eyes Nanoha had ever seen.

"And who do we have left for last, if not our newest member who joined us this year? Testarossa, I've heard you're quite the child prodigy."

The young Takamachi observed as he leaned down to rest his elbows on Fate's, as well as Quattro haughty expression, and felt a raising desire to hit someone really hard. Repeatedly. There was a difference between tormenting his students who knew what to expect, and singling out a gentle, soft-spoken shy girl.

Scaglietting slipped the test on the desk, "Would you please read out loud your grade to your classmates?"

Maybe she'll give Vita-chan an awl and point her toward Scaglietti's car. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea, although probably a hammer would be better.

"98"

…

Huh?

Nanoha blinked.

'_Wow. Fate-chan rules._'

As she realized that Scaglietti was trying to praise the girl and not making her into a laughing stock, Nanoha calmed down a little. When she heard that Fate had basically missed getting a perfect score because of a technicality she just was even more impressed.

"...ask my former best student Shiruba about which passages must be written down and which ones you can skip later," Scaglietti was saying while patting the blonde's head.

Nanoha felt her mood darken at both the gesture, which was clearly upsetting Fate, and the words, because judging by Quattro's furious look she'd sooner kill Fate and throw her body in the ocean than helping her in any way, shape or form.

The young Takamachi thought she had seen enough for the day, and she really had enough crazyness in her life thanks to her friends, but when Jail Scaglietti gave out candies to his fifteen years old very cute female student, she felt her brain implode.

"Nanoha-chan, I'm scared," Hayate whispered.

Aside from the fact that he totally looked like a pedophile it was just _Wrong_. The walls themselves would have turned red and crumbled in shame if they could do it on their own.

It took Nanoha the rest of the morning to calm down, and although Quattro's hate filled glances were worrying, Fate being all flustered and staring at her desk was the cutest thing ever.

Finally lunch break came, and Nanoha had known since the first hour what Vita was going to do now.

"Hey Quattro, you know I'm not really good at math, so why don't you help me since you're the best in the class. Ooops, my bad, you aren't the best."

It was really stupid and petty, rubbing salt on the wound on Quattro's pride. Even if Vita had taken much worse from the glasses wearing girl for a whole year, Nanoha wished she hadn't done that. If she was honest with herself, though, the reason for this wish was that he didn't want Quattro taking it out on Fate.

"Hey, where did Fate-chan go?" Nanoha asked noticing she had already vanished.

"Run out as soon as the bell rang," Hayate answered, "and should you really call Fate-chan Fate-chan when you didn't even talk to her once?"

"You just called her Fate-chan too. Never mind that, you call everyone by their given name, or by some nickname you make on the spot if you don't know it," Nanoha argued.

"Because I'm friends with everyone, even if I don't know them and they don't know me." Reasoning with Hayate was like staring at one of **Escher's pictures.** "So, are we going out in the garden to eat lunch today too?"

"Sure thing, Yagammel-san," Yuuno answered.

The whole group burst out laughing.

"Damn you stinky ferret! I was just thinking of something else when writing, it could have happened to everyone!"

"Still, to misspell your own family name... what were you thinking about Hayate?" Suzuka was smiling sweetly. Too sweetly. "Let me guess, since Yagami turned into Yagammel Maybe it had something to do with Himmel-san?"

"...hey, what's that crowd near the cafeteria?" Hayate knew when and how to change topic.

"Those girls? They look like our student council president's fanclub. I remember them from that time they were out for Vita's head after she punched him," Nanoha said looking at the group.

"Nothing new, then. They're just staring dreamily at their prince and we can go back to Haya-" Arisa hadn't quite finished dismissing them when they let out a loud gasp and started whispering among themselves like an angry swarm whose hive had just been kicked.

"Let me guess, something new actually happened?" Yuuno deadpanned.

"Only one way to find out," Suzuka sang merrily, making her way to the cafeteria dragging the closest person to her, who happened to be Nanoha, by the wrist. As soon as she reached the little crowd she fished for gossip.

"Hey there, what is going on?"

"Harlaown-taicho left his friends telling them he had a previous appointment, then he went there," the nameless girl pointed toward a table, "and sat down with _that girl_." The hatred in the last two words was hard to ignore.

Nanoha didn't particularly care for gossip but, having nothing else to do since she couldn't eat while Suzuka was holding her wrist, she looked at the table the girl had pointed to. Suddenly, lunch was showed to the back of her mind.

"Fate-chan?"

"Harlaown-taicho gave _that girl_ a bag with some cookies or sweets, and _she_ gave him an home-made bento." Jealousy was evident in her tone as she turned to glare at the blonde girl who was eating with the dark haired boy.

Nanoha frowned looking at the two. They seemed to have a good time and acted comfortable with each other, something really good since Fate had never looked as relaxed and cheerful before. So why did it leave a bitter taste in her mouth?

'_Am I really so self-centered that I thought I should be the one becoming her friend and no one else? I...I'm an horrible person, I should be happy Fate-chan isn't as lonely as she seemed._'

And yet, when she saw Chrono Harlaown leaning forward and grabbing her hands, it was like a knot was being tightened in her stomach. Seeing Fate blush and have a mild panic attack when it looked like her companion was going to beg was adorable, but the thought that it was because Chrono really soured her mood.

"Well, well, well, Fate-chan and Chrono? Really?" Hayate had slung her arms around bot Nanoha's and Suzuka's shoulders.

"Well, they make a nice couple,"Suzuka considered, "Although they're completely different physically, they're undeniably both good looking, both of them are geniuses, and both have a really serious and responsible attitude."

"But Fate-chan is fifteen! Harlaown is eighteen, isn't he too old for her? I'm sure he's too old, there must be something against this." Nanoha had no idea how her mouth had opened or why those words came out. It was an unconscious reflex, like closing your eyes when something is going to hit your face.

Suzuka was eying her oddly, but it was Hayate that worried her. It's always Hayate.

"Well, technically speaking since he's an adult he could potentially be incriminated for having intercourse with a minor if they go that far."

Nanoha felt the knot twist and jump up and down consuming everything it touched and turning it to ice.

"But in any case it's none of our business, right Nanoha?" There was something awfully suspicious in the way Hayate asked and examined at her, as if she was looking for something, a specific reaction.

"Yeah, you're right," Nanoha said in a flat tone.

They went back outside to eat lunch with the rest of their little group, but Hayate kept glancing at her and chuckling to herself. After the fifth time, Nanoha decided to ask what it was about.

"Oh, no, Nanoha-chan, I'm sorry. Sorry, but this one you have to figure out by yourself."


	4. Chapter 4

I'm on a roll. Let's just enjoy it while we can, soon college will start and I won't be able to write so much anymore.  
This chapter, I have no idea where it came from. What I wanted to write in this will end up in the next, because before I could get there I had already written my quota for this chapter. It features some tension, people's thoughts, and a lot of sillyness just as always.  
To yuki: what happened in the past will be reavealed... sooner or later. In bits. I won't actually give you the whole story in one go, and before I even start I'll spend some time in the present throwing the occasional hint. Yes, I'm enjoying seeing you all throwing wild guesses (not that any of you actually did that ^^; ). On a more serious note I was debating whatever I'll use a flashback or having people(Fate) tell the story. I'm leaning toward flashback, but I'll see when I get there.  
As usual, I more than welcome critics, comments, suggestions and even questions. ;)  
Enjoy

**-o-o-**

**-o-o-**

This morning the normal throng of students making their way to the TSAB high school were noisier than usual. Many would attribute this to the fact that today clubs were scheduled to start their meeting, even if the students were granted one more week to subscribe into one, and in some cases that would be true.

"I can't believe I found absolutely no one interested in archeology in the whole school," Yuuno complained, "now I'm going to spend another year in the library committee."

"You're such a drama queen, you're saying that as if you didn't like your work in the library when in reality you're a bookferret," Hayate said looking over her notebook in which she wrote the program of sewing club, which she was the head of.

"Oh, shut up Yagammel." Yuuno had tried to form an archeology club the first year too with the same result, so after this second failure he felt rather grumpy.

While Hayate was sputtering as every other time her friends mentioned her new nickname, behind them Arisa and Suzuka, who both opted for the music club, and Nanoha and Vita, who were going joining the kendo club even if Signum would most likely kill them, were walking observing the tension around them.

The truth was that only few people were thinking about their future clubs. The majority of them were much more interested in the latest gossip, born yesterday during lunch break, about the student council president and the young blonde girl he ate with.

"I heard Harlaown-sama gave her an heart-shaped chocolate box."

"Yeah, and she had made lunch for him."

"I tell you, I _saw_ it all, and that little slut played footsie under the table the whole time."

"It was so romantic, Harlaown-kun knelt down and kissed her hand before asking for a date with her yesterday afternoon."

"Ah, that Chrono! Who'd have thought he digged little girls. That one is just fifteen, you know?"

"Yeah, well, coulda've fooled me, she's hot man. Bigger tits than half the second years already."

Nanoha debated whatever she could get away with kicking those last two boys in the nuts until they passed out. And then some more. She also had a bone to pick with that little hussy who called Fate a slut.

"I can't believe it," Vita, who had heard the comments floating around, stated with a baffled look.

"Yeah, I mean, what's wrong with these people? More than half of them were there yesterday! It's like their memories were tampered with overnight or something." Arisa shared Vita's confusion.

"You two are hopeless," Suzuka said shaking her head, "it's obvious that the rumors evolve as they spread. A fact is referred to someone, who tells it to someone else, and as the news bounce back and forth they change. It's basic, really, doesn't even take into consideration the jealousy and envy of the Chrono fan club. It's only natural that they'd try to paint Testarossa as a... slovenly gir-ouch! Nanoha! That hurt!"

"Sorry, I slipped." If she weren't growling maybe someone would have believed her.

"Leave her alone, Nanoha-chan is just pissed about everyone badmouthing her new crush on top of finding out she's already taken." Hayate turned to give her a playful smile.

"Am not. I just don't see why everyone makes such a big deal out of those two eating lunch together. I do the same with Yuuno-kun at least twice a week when you all wander off God knows where, but that doesn't mean we're going out."

After the shock from seeing the highly unexpected and unusual scene in the cafeteria the day before, Nanoha had actually thought about it and came to the conclusion that there was no proof Fate-chan was dating the black haired boy. Maybe that bag was something the blonde had lost and he was only giving it back. And the bento could have been a gesture to thank the boy.

"Don't be like that Nanoha-chan, it's quite normal to have a crush on a pretty girl at our age. Besides," and here Hayate rolled her eyes at her friend's reasoning, "of course no one would think you got together with Yuuno, he's gay."

"WHAT? I'm not! Why would you even think that?" Yuuno had come really close to fall flat on his face.

"What do you mean you're not gay? You like romantic movies and book, you spend more time than all of us combined to comb your hair, you don't do physical activity and you even bathe regularly," Hayate presented her points.

"That doesn't mean anything! Of course I take time combing for my hair, because it's long. The fact I'm sensitive or care for my personal hygiene doesn't make me gay!"

"But what about last year, when we went to that party on new year's eve? You had on a frilly pink shirt. With white hearts and a rainbow on it. What kind of hetero man would wear it?" Hayate argued back.

"Nyahahah," Nanoha laughed embarassedly, "it was my Christmas gift. I thought it was cute and told him to wear it. Sorry?"

She couldn't help but blush under the incredulous stares of her friends.

"Why on earth would you think... You know what? Never mind." Hayate pushed that aside, "What I mean is that you're just so_ girly_. And you never showed interest in any girl. Are you sure you don't like other boys?"

"Quite." Yuuno had a blank face by now.

"Don't get mad Yuuno, I knew you were straight." Suzuka comforted the blond boy, "I'd have even bet on it. In fact, you owe me twenty Hayate."

"...you bet on my sexuality." Yuuno was caught between a state of fury and intense shock.

Hayate was handing over her money at the purple haired girl, who then turned towards Vita. The redhead handed over the same sum.

"What? You could have fooled everyone with that damn shirt on."

Disheartened, Yuuno looked at Arisa.

"I thought you were gay too, but I don't bet against Suzuka on principle, " was her answer.

"Don't mind her. You know, when we were five there was a solar eclipse and I won a year's worth of sweets off her. She hasn't gotten over it yet, even if she knows I didn't turn the sun black by now."

As Arisa was grumbling about childhood traumas, Yuuno turned to Nanoha and hugged her while crying on her shoulder, sobbing how she was his only real friend. She patted his back and, careful not to being noticed, put her money on Suzuka's outstretched hand.

"Hey, no hugging Nanoha-chan like that, if you really like girls than... that's..."

"What is it? What happened?" Vita became concerned seeing the look of horror blossoming on Hayate's face.

"You're straight! We talked about our crushes, how to get guys, and I even told you what underwear I wanted to buy _and you're not gay_! I can't believe it, we talked about everything and you where there and heard all those things..." She seemed to be as shocked as Yuuno himself was a minute before.

"Hayate! Hey Hayate, you're in 2-C, right?"

The brunette and her friends looked at the group of three girls nearing them. While none of them could be sure about who those were aside from fellow second years, it was no surprise that they knew Hayate "Life-of-the-party" Yagami. The girl was popular after all, not the kind of popular that had groupies around her, but rather she was famous as the one who could transform a boring social gathering into the party of the year.

"Sure I am, why?" Hayate welcomed the distraction from the disaster that was her previous conversation.

"Well, we heard that Harlaown-taicho came to pick up that blonde girl from your class yesterday at the end of school. Is it true? What did they say? What did they do?"

Vita and Arisa spared a second to thank every deity they could think of for having this unknown girl refer to Fate Testarossa in a neutral manner. If she had used one of the less favorable epithets that were flying around, they would have probably spent the next three hours trying to hide hers and her friends' corpses. Nanoha was really starting to freak them out with the way she glared around.

"Ah, you came to the right person! Yes, the mighty Chrono did indeed come to pick little Fate-chan up yesterday. He slammed the door open and interrupted the lesson, then walked into the room and swept her off her fee-"

"HAYATE!" Nanoha yelled.

"Last time I thank a deity, they abandon you right after you do," Vita and Arisa mumbled simultaneously before looking at each other perplexed.

"Don't go around spreading more false rumors," Nanoha continued to scold her friend, "all it happened is Harlaown waiting in the corridor for Fate-chan to gather her things and once she exited the classroom they walked away."

"They went away together? Then it's true they had a date!" With this information the three unknown girls hurried away toward their own classroom whispering among themselves.

"You're such a spoilsport Nanoha-chan," Hayate lamented.

Nanoha opened her mouth to answer, but Suzuka stopped her, not only from talking, but from walking into the school building too.

"Look there, our blonde wonder is here. And look who's just now coming into the school grounds. I'm not missing this."

Following Suzuka's line of sight they all found Fate walking across the courtyard. A lot of glances were being sent her way, some appreciating -mostly from boys whose disappearance Nanoha was planning- some loathing -the warehouse behind the school should be big enough if she chopped them up a bit- and some just curious -Nanoha resolved to keep an eye on the last ones, just in case more measures became necessary-.

Fate herself didn't seem to mind the situation she had found herself in. Nanoha noticed her younger classmate seemed a bit embarrassed at, and definitely confused by, the amount of attention she was receiving by the school population, but all the red eyed beauty did was keep to the side of the path and blush a bit. Damn, but it made Nanoha want to hug her.

Murmurs rose in the whole schoolyard as Chrono appeared, much later than usual, and run to the blonde. He had a big stupid grin, something that caused more than one student to do a double check as it was totally not-Chrono, and once he reached her he swept her in a bear hug.

A girl walked into the wall beside Nanoha, but she ignored her, too busy staring at the unthinkable scene going on under her eyes. Since when did the school president show human emotions, anyway? He'd always been about rules, rules and rules. What was going on?

**-o-o-**

Fate was jumpy. She couldn't help it, since she had got on the bus she had felt eyes on her and this time she was sure she wasn't imagining the groups of students stealing glances and whispering among themselves.

The blonde had no idea what could have caused the sudden interest in her, aside from maybe for that math test result. She didn't think it was that big of a deal and would have discarded the thought, but nothing else had happened yesterday. Well, nothing that would cause this behavior.

On a personal note, though, she had gone with Chrono to the mall and helped him pick a gift for Amy, some flowers, and then they'd spent a good hour sitting in a ice-cream parlor brainstorming what to say for his confession. When it turned late they'd gone back home, and after dinner he had stormed into her room having second thoughts about everything, so she had had to calm him down and work on his confession again.

Fate had also talked him into going to Amy this same morning. Mainly because she feared he'd ambush her to start everything over if he didn't go for it soon. Which incidentally made her even more jumpy than the looks she was getting. Maybe something was wrong with her uniform.

"Fate!"

Two arms slid around her and she felt her feet leave the ground as she was squeezed like a tube of toothpaste.

"She said yes, yes yes!"

Seeing Chrono like this was one of the weirdest thing ever, last time he'd been this emotional was because of the bath-lock incident. However, as happy as she was for him, if before the students were stealing glances they were now openly staring and gaping.

Fate felt her face burn.

"Chrono, please put me down. I can't breathe." That was also becoming a issue.

"Oh, sorry." He let her go.

Fate almost immediately took a step back and crouched down hiding her face behind her schoolbag.

"Ah... Fate? Sorry, I'm just really happy, and I wanted to thank you," Chrono said embarrassed by his emotional outburst as if he just realized the scene he had made.

"It's ok. Just... go. Leave me here for a bit, I need a moment...I'll get to my own classroom in a bit..." '..._since digging a hole and bury myself isn't an option_'

"Right. If you don't have plans for lunch, can you eat with me? I'll tell you everything about this morning and I wanted your opinion on where to go for our first date."

'_Since when did I become a __couple's therapist? Just k__ill me now._'

"Yeah, it's no problem. I'll see you at lunch."

With a last goodbye, Chrono hurried to his classroom. Fate remained crouched down one more minute, taking deep breathes to calm her nerves, before standing again and following his example. She noticed that the looks had increased, though. Stupid Chrono, probably everyone thought she was a weirdo now.

Doing her best to ignore it, she reached her classroom and went to her desk. She was checking her books and notebooks when someone tapped her shoulder. Fate turned around and came face to face with that brown haired girl with glasses, Quattro.

"Good morning Shiruba-san, how can I help you?" Fate inquired.

The older girl blinked at her, momentarily taken aback by the greeting. Then her amber eyes narrowed behind her lenses and she leaned forward, her index finger poking harshly Fate's shoulder.

"Now listen here Testarossa, I don't know how you got that score on that test but I want you to get something really clear in your mind. _No one_ makes me look like a fool, so consider yourself warned. Oh, one last thing, Scaglietti-sensei wanted me to ask you to join the math club, but you won't, right?" Quattro asked looking threateningly at her.

"Yes, I won't join the math," Fate responded honestly, since she had already decided to join both kendo and track and field. The thinly veiled threat in Quattro's little speech had totally gone over her head.

"Good." Quattro sneered, turning to leave the girl she thought she had intimidated.

"Shiruba-san?" Fate waited for her to look back at her, "would you show me what passages Scaglietti-sensei doesn't want us to skip when solving problems?"

Quattro looked at the blonde girl for a while, trying to make sense of the situation. In the end, the only explanation she could come up with was that the little brat was making fun of her.

"...You'll regret this Testarossa."

As the older girl walked away, Fate tilted her head confused by her behavior.

'_I think I might have missed something there. Was it something I said?_'

Fate replayed their exchange in her head, looking for hints on what could have caused her classmate's peculiar behavior. She came up empty-handed, so she shrugged the whole thing off and grabbed her change of clothes.

"Good morning everyone, what a splendid, wonderful day!"

Fate looked up to see the loud short redhead she had become used to see wreaking havoc in her class. The whole group of her friends was following her and among them was Takamachi Nanoha, the girl with the sky-colored eyes. Fate looked down at her things, wishing she knew how to approach the brunette.

"What the hell is wrong with you Eisen?" Quattro barked.

"I'm just happy to be here at school, can't I? I've been looking forward to today's lesson since Monday." Vita grinned evilly as the glasses wearing girl's face gradually paled, "oh, I see you remember we have P.E. today."

The bell rang and boys and girls split and went their separate ways to go to their respective changing rooms. Fate had a shy half-smile on her face. While she didn't mind studying, physical activity was something her legs craved after sitting for prolonged periods of time.

After they had all changed, they went to the athletic field. Fate eyed the tracks and felt a desire to run. Just run. She had always found it a liberating activity and it helped easing her mind. Kendo, on the other hand, pumped her up.

"Are you all here? Good. Pair up and let's start some stretching exercises," the P.E. Teacher, a really tall man with large shoulders and the physic of a rugby player, said. His name was Zest, Fate thought.

"Nano-"

"Like hell, I'm not pairing up with you Hayate."

"So mean. You'll pair with me, right Vita?"

"I'm with Nanoha."

"Then-"

"Suzuka's mine."

"Damn it Arisa, who am I going to pair with now?"

Fate, who couldn't help but hear the discussion, took a step toward the group and addressed the short haired girl. It wasn't the brunette she'd have liked to talk with, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

"Yagami-san? If you don't mind, I'm in need of a partner too."

Electric blue eyes -not the pale azure of the sky that warmed her being- looked at her. A grin blossomed on the brunette's face and in an instant she was hanging on Fate's left arm.

"In need of a partner? That's not what I've heard." Hayate's expression was downright mischievous and even Fate, although she couldn't make head or tail of that statement, realized that she wasn't really thinking about their class now.

"Say Haya-"

"Too late Nanoha-chan, I'm going other there to stretch with Fate. I can call you Fate, can't I? Oh, and call me Hayate now let's go."

As she was pushed further away, Fate thought she had seen Yaga- Hayate stuck out her tongue at Takamachi. She was pretty sure the sewing club president -as she found out Hayate held that post- had a reason for how she was behaving, but she couldn't understand what it could be.

'_Maybe it's just in my head. Going by what I know, she's not really different from her usual self. Yeah, I'm probably imagining it._'

They completed the warm ups quickly, and then Zest-sensei divided them all in two groups for a relay race. Fate noted that, while Hayate was in her squad and so was Suzuka, the rest of the group -Vita, Nanoha and Arisa- was in the other squad, and so was Quattro.

"Now, we won't use batons since last time _someone_ threatened to use them in an improper manner against one of the boys," Zest-sensei said while Nanoha was whistling and looking the other way, "so you just wait for your companions to finish their lap around the field and slap your hand. Now get ready."

The two teams formed random lines so that when a runner completed the lap the first in line would be in position and ready to start running and the one after her would take her previous position while she was doing the lap.

Since the order was more or less random Fate found herself last in line. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that the other squad's last runner was Quattro, who sported a contemptuous look.

Zest-sensei blew his whistle and the race was on. Vita was the first runner for their opposing team, but, contrary to what her small stature may have hinted at, she held her ground fairly well. The next two racers were Suzuka and Nanoha, and it was no contest at all with the latter creating a gap that put her squad clearly in the lead.

After the purple haired girl, Hayate didn't fare any better, but at least their rivals didn't increase their margin. The short haired brunette panted with her hands on her knees and looked at Fate sheepishly.

"You're up next. Quattro's really... slow so you can… probably reduce the gap some. Don't worry about it... even if we loose, though." She smiled at the blonde who nodded and got in position.

Quattro had just started running after Arisa slapped her hand, maybe with more force than necessary, while Fate waited for her teammate to finish her lap.

When she finally felt her hand being slapped Quattro had already completed more than a fourth of the course, but Hayate was right. She was slow. Fate was not.

Without holding back any, Fate run with all the speed she was capable of, long strands of shining golden hair trailing behind her. One after the other her feet barely touched the ground, her breathe regulated in synch with her steps, she steadily gained ground on the other girl. At two third of the course Fate had reached an already exhausted and panting Quattro and surpassed her.

Reaching the finish line, she slapped Zest-sensei's hand as she passed him, winning the race for her team. By the time Quattro arrived an handful of seconds later, Fate's breathing had returned to normal.

"We won, we won," Hayate was celebrating while hanging from Fate's neck, "this girl has good looks, is smart, and is good at sports too! Aren't you just perfect?"

Fate was at a loss on what to do, except for her body's automatic response that never failed to turn her face several shades redder whenever she was complimented so bluntly. The blonde didn't really dislike the other girl's hug, but she didn't know if she should hug her back.

When Hayate almost started nuzzling her neck, though, Fate almost freaked out. Thankfully Nanoha choose that moment to grab her friend by the back of her shirt and pull her off the blonde before scolding her like a rambunctious child.

For a brief instant however, mixed with the relief she felt, Fate wished it was her that Nanoha had dragged away. Being left here when they bickered among themselves, so close yet so far... it made her feel lonely.

"Testarossa."

She turned and looked up to face her P.E. Teacher. He really had an imposing figure.

"Your time is really good, have you decided what club to join yet?"

"I wanted to join the track and field and the kendo club Zest-sensei. Chron- I mean, the student council president told me their meeting schedules are compatible," Fate answered.

The teacher nodded to himself before a grin pulled his lips upward, "Interesting choice."

He left it at that as he turned his attention back to the class.

**-o-o-**

Classes were finally over, and Nanoha was lost in thought as her hands went through the motions of packing her books. She knew she'd have to come up with a good excuse and ask Suzuka to pass her her notes, because she hadn't taken any the whole day .

Since she had first put foot on school grounds in the morning, Nanoha had been surrounded by people gossiping about Fate-chan and Chrono Harlaown, as if the concept of the boy spending time with a girl for reasons that weren't related to schoolwork was inconceivable.

Nanoha paused, staring at her chemistry book without seeing it. She guessed it _was_ weird to see their president act like that. Words had it that he had been weirdly smiling at intervals all day, and a reliable source had eavesdropped him admitting to a friend the reason was that he confessed and got a girlfriend.

And as if to rub salt in the wounds, he had lunch with Fate-chan today too. Witnesses reported they met in the cafeteria but successively moved in the courtyard, but about what happened after rumors were numerous and varying.

The more believable ones, coming from Suzuka who had coincidentally disappeared with Hayate during lunch break, said the two had spent time in a similar fashion to the previous day minus the exchange of a bag of sweets and a bento. That meant the two had sat and eaten together, talking to each other, occasionally stealing from each other's bentos, and generally acting all lovey dovey.

Nanoha felt sick to her stomach. She had never minded couples acting overly sweet, her own parents were way over the top in that department so she had had no problems with it. Before now.

'_What's wrong with me? I know Chrono is a good guy deep down, but I don't think he's right for Fate-chan. She'd be better off with someone more friendly that isn't a stick in the mud for rules._'

While thinking that, she conveniently ignored how much different and less stiff the dark haired boy had been in the last days.

Nanoha tapped her book against her desk. As much as lunch break had added fuel to the fire, the real reason she hadn't been able to pay attention in class was another one.

It was during P.E. Class, after Hayate had thrown herself at Fate-chan and hung all over her just to piss Nanoha off -really, anyone could see Fate-chan was uncomfortable- after she had dragged the other brunette off.

Sad burgundy eyes. They were haunting Nanoha's thoughts, she could see them clearly in her mind's eye and they stirred an ache in her own chest. They were so beautiful and deep but... also so...

'_...lonely._'

"Hey Nanoha, are you ready yet?" Vita asked leaning against the door frame, "I don't want to piss Signum off being late on the very first club meeting."

"Yeah, I'm coming." Nanoha shoved her chemistry book in her bag forcefully.

Kendo was what she needed now. There was nothing like scaring new members out of their wits and letting loose on an opponent with a wooden sword to clear someone's mind.


	5. Chapter 5

Well, here I am once again. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, I've thrown some little teases in it. Keep an eye on the details whenever you read a chapter of this story, because some of them are hints for the bigger picture. =P  
I don't have much to add here this time. Review for questions and the like.  
Enjoy

**-o-o-**

**-o-o-**

Vita and Nanoha were making their way to the changing room in order to get ready for their club activities, all the while trying to guess if and how many new members would join the kendo team this year.

"For being scary as hell Signum is also quite popular, so some may join because of her. Remember when Chrono was vice-captain last year, how many people joined because of him?" Vita was estimating.

"Yeah, and when we counted, there were actually more people in for Signum than him. But I still think most will give up after a couple of weeks, our captain is brutal like that with those who don't take kendo seriously," Nanoha argued back.

"Nanoha-san!"

Hearing the call, the girls stopped. Two first years were running down the corridor toward them,or rather one girl with short blue hair was running while dragging her long orange haired friend with her. Nanoha recognized the two and greeted them.

"Subaru-chan, Teana-chan. What are you doing here? Have you joined a club already?" the brunette asked, curious to see the younger girls still around after school hours.

"Ah, yeah, I'll be in the track and field team but there's no meeting today," Subaru answered, "and Tea won't join a club because she has a part-time job."

Said girl yanked her arm free from the iron grip her friend had had and rubbed her wrist.

"Stupid, there was no need to pull me like that," she complained.

"But, I heard the kendo club has its first meeting today," Subaru went on totally ignoring her, "and everyone was saying how it's really strong and cool, especially captain Ritten, and I heard that the president was a member up to last year, and then I heard you were a kendoist too, so Tea and I decided that we really wanted to see it."

"We?" Teana glared at her friend who, again, didn't seem to take notice of it.

Nanoha took a couple of seconds to go over everything Subaru has said. The younger girl apparently had the tendency to babble and speak fast saying everything that came to her mind. It was a bit overwhelming.

"There should be no problems if you want to watch, just don't get in the way. Last time someone did Signum... er..."

"She didn't take it well," Vita concluded for her. Some things were better left unsaid and forgotten.

Subaru's green eyes gleamed happily and she and Teana walked with them until they reached the changing room. Although it was a bit early, Nanoha made to go change when Vita grabbed her wrist. The brunette looked questioningly at her, but the shorter girl simply pressed a finger to her lips and gestured to the other three girls to stay put before sneaking around a corner.

Left behind, the two first years look at ther for some explanation, but all Nanoha could do was shrugging.

After some seconds of awkward silence, a pained yell came from the other side of the changing room, followed by the sounds of a struggle.

"Vice Grandscenic, you little scum! Stay still so that I can kill you!" That was definitely Vita's voice.

"Sorry Vita-san, my life is too valuable for the photography club." Vice's voice without doubt.

"I'll obliterate you and your pathetic excuse of a perverted club! Did you really think I wouldn't know you'd try to take photos in the changing rooms? Now _let me kill you_."

"Ah, it seems the new photography club president is an old friend of Vita's," Nanoha explained lamely to her wide-eyed companions with a strained smile.

"It's not like I wanted to photograph you Vita. I mean, I know some guys go for the Lolita look, but little girls aren't- Oh God, I didn't mean it like that, please forgive me!"

"_Like hell!_"

Soon after they saw a brown haired boy with a camera hanging from his neck running around the corner and down the corridor as if Death was hot on his heels.

Nanoha had the reflexes to catch Vita by her shirt and pull her into a hug when she tried to pass her to continue her chase, though.

"Nyahahah," She laughed nervously, having no idea about how to reassure her two underclassmen that everything was going to be alright, all the while keeping a firm grip on the redhead until she calmed down.

Later, when they went into the dojo, they saw a couple of older members, a lot of curious that came to see the first meeting of their club, and a little restless group of hopefuls who wanted to join and were checking if their protections fit. Signum herself was standing in the middle of the dojo, eyes closed, waiting for the scheduled time their meeting would start.

While Teana and Subaru stood in the audience, Nanoha and Vita made small talk with the old members of the club, the main topic being bets on how many new members would drop out as soon as they realized just how much work Signum would ask of them.

It was a known fact across the school that, since she became captain -which was on her first year when she handed her predecessor his ass-, Signum wanted to have the honor of breaking new members in. sometimes literally, since her way to say welcome to the club was a spar. Hence, the big audience of curious.

"I think that guy will do the best out of all the new recruits," a sturdy black haired third year said pointing to one of the new boys.

"I don't know... I don't think he could parry an assault from Signum, no matter how easy she'll take it on him," Vita criticized, "what do you think Nanoha, who those losers will loose in the least embarassing way?"

"Be nice Vita. I don't kno-" '_Are those blonde hair of who I think they are?_'

They were. Now tied in a low ponytail, those shining strands belonged to Fate Testarossa, who had just entered the dojo donning the same protections and clothes as every other member. The only difference was that she looked... she looked...

"The little princess? Going out with the old vice-captain won't get her into the team if she cannot hold her swooooh..." The final word faded into a high pitch while Nanoha removed her shinai from the boy's crotch.

A couple of minutes later Signum opened her eyes and stood straighter. While she introduced herself and gave a very brief welcome speech, Nanoha studied Fate-chan's figure.

Aside from how stunning she looked wearing the kendo clothes, the older girl noticed she was calm and composed. Unlike some of the other new members, Fate wasn't shuffling, fidgeting or pulling on her protections. She was simply standing there in a relaxed pose, in fact Nanoha had rarely seen the red eyed girl so at ease.

"I'm betting on Fate-chan," Nanoha murmured back to the other guys.

"...you can address them to our advisor, Agito-sensei," Signum concluded her speech, "now get in line and we'll have a spar so that I can get a feel for what level you are at."

The first to step up was a short first year boy that had Vita's sympathy on virtue of actually being shorter than her. As the duel started, Nanoha heard a voice trying to catch her attention from the edge of the dojo, where the crowd of people external to the club were standing.

"Psst! Nanoha-chan! Vita-chan!"

"Hayate? Didn't your club start today too?" Vita asked.

"Silly Vita-chan, I'm the head of my club, if I want to change the schedule to watch the famous kendo club tryouts, I can. In fact that's what I did. Oh, look, that guy lost his stick," Hayate responded.

"It's a wooden sword, and it's called shinai," Nanoha corrected her friend.

"Yeah, whatever. In any case I wasn't going to miss this, especially since it seems that our little Fate-chan wants to join your team. Aren't you just thrilled, Nanoha-chan?" Hayate grinned mischievously at her.

"I'd like to remind you that I have a weapon in my hands right now," she deadpanned.

They watched the next matches as the new members showed their varying levels of skills. The boy the guy Nanoha had turned into a white voice had bet on was among the bests, although every time he had parried his arms shook tremendously, and by the time the end was called he could barely lift them.

"Next," Signum called, "What's your name?"

"Fate Testarossa, from class 2-C," the blonde answered.

"Testarossa, sounds familiar. Oh, you mean like the company?" the pink haired girl inquired.

Fate nodded, "Yes."

"Company? What company?" Hayate asked Signum standing beside her.

"Testarossa Pharmaceuticals. And what are you doing here?" She didn't look really happy to have her personal space, which at the moment extended to the whole combat area, invaded like that by someone who wasn't even part of the club.

"Ooooh, a _Pharmaceutical_ company. I see, I see, you would know those, right Siggy?" Only Hayate could get away with her life after saying something like that to her face.

One had to be as close as Hayate and Fate were to notice the slight coloring on Signum's cheeks.

"It's one of the biggest companies in Japan, with numerous branches abroad too. It's common knowledge," she denied whatever the short haired brunette was thinking, "Now get out of my dojo, _Yagammel_."

"What! I can't believe this, does the whole damn school know about that?" Hayate pulled her hair in frustration. She was going to burn that stupid sheet, once the evidence was destroyed she could pretend this never happened.

"Testarossa... Now I remember, Harlaown told me you might show up. Show me what you can do," Signum challenged, as if Hayate's little exploit never happened.

Nanoha felt like a stab in her gut. _She_ hadn't known that Fate-chan wanted to join the kendo team, why did Harlaown? It was irrational, but Nanoha wanted to know more about this pretty girl with captivating red eyes, she wanted to be the one who knew the most about her.

'_And despite knowing, that useless boy hasn't even shown up to see her fight,_' she thought sourly as she watched the two girls getting ready.

Just then, Nanoha saw a new person join the ranks of the spectator behind her, and it wasn't a welcomed person by any stretch of the word. Even less than Harlaown would be.

"Did I miss the little smartass getting beaten up?"

And with that, Quattro instantly gained the top place on Nanoha's "people-I-need-to-eviscerate" list. The blue eyed girl tried to simply ignore her for the moment, though. Too many witnesses,. And she'd never hear the end of it from Signum if blood was splattered on the walls of the dojo.

The match finally started, with Signum probing the younger girl's defenses. Fate-chan parried the first two strikes with no problems, and dodged the third. She had good footwork, all the senior members noticed immediately.

The pace increased and Fate started occasionally going on the offensive, both contestants gradually putting more force behind their attacks. With every exchange it was becoming clear that Signum had an hedge in physical strength, but Fate could count on her speed to dodge instead of parrying and to surprise the older girl with fast attacks.

Nanoha couldn't keep the smug grin from her face as Quattro's face became redder and redder with every exchange between the two combatants, and she began to chuckle to herself when the spiteful four-eyes left looking furious.

"Nanoha-san, why are you chuckling?" Subaru, who had sneaked her way to stand near her, asked.

"Nothing, it just seems I'm going to win the bet on who the best new member is."

"Ritten-san is taking it easy, though, and I bet you're much better." Subaru pouted.

That actually made Nanoha pause. Yes, Signum took it easy on the recruits, but she held back less and less as the match progressed. The longer one lasted the better they were. And Fate seemed to hold her ground with no problems so far, if she kept that up soon Signum might start taking it seriously enough that one little mistake would result in a serious injury.

Fate was indeed good, she must have studied kendo for at least a couple of years before. Was she, Nanoha, better than this mysterious blonde? The brunette had learned kendo from her father and siblings in their family dojo, but she had never had the interest in it the other Takamachis had. She kept practicing it in high school more out of habit than anything else.

This young red eyed wonder, on the other hand, seemed to really enjoy herself right now.

The two shinai met once again and the two fighting girls pushed against each other. It didn't take long before Fate disengaged and retreated.

"Not bad at all," Signum offered smirking, "I think I'll stop holding back now, so be careful."

"Finally, I was wondering when you'd ever take me seriously," Fate responded with a smirk of her own and eyes gleaming in delight.

'_Oh. My. God._'

Nanoha felt her knees turn to jelly. If she had thought Fate-chan was cute and huggable before, now, with that confident and gleeful expression, she looked sexy and simply ravishing.

"Hot, damn, I can see why Chrono turned into a cradle robber, that's one fine jailbait right there."

Nanoha would have castrated the little pervert but, damn him, he was right. Furthermore, the reminder of Harlaown had just burst her bubble. Really, what kind of boyfriend was he that he missed this? Fate-chan deserved better. And to make matters even worse the witch had come back.

'_Huh? Wait a second, why did Quattro come back after stomping off like that? And why is she smirking like that?_'

Nanoha was keeping an eye on her and noticed that she wasn't just looking at the fight, but she was also stealing glances at someone standing on the other side of the room. A girl with a camera Nanoha had seen lurking around a couple of times, one of Chrono's fans if she remembered right.

The match had become an heated battle and both swordswomen were giving it their all. Signum's strikes were precise and powerful, and she had force_d the younger girl into a defensive_ role. However, Fate hadn't slowed down one bit and, even now that their captain was serious, she managed to move just fast enough to avoid critical hits.

**-o-o-**

Fate was having the time of her life.

Ritten-san was as great a swordswoman as Chrono had claimed her to be if not even better. When last year he had been the vice captain he often told her how unbelievably strong the "pink haired manic" was.

The blonde knew that was a great compliment coming from her brother who had practiced kendo since he was nine. Since she had been adopted into the family, in fact. It was something he had pulled her into as a brother-sister bonding activity.

Lindy had bitten his head off when she found out. Something about how beating each other up with woods wasn't her idea of a healthy past time, especially for a girl like Fate who had had enough bad experiences already.

The blonde liked kendo, though, and Chrono had said as much to their mother. He had had to tell that for her because back then Fate wouldn't have ever spoke up for herself. As a matter of fact, she was still horrible at saying no to anything her family might ask her.

Fate turned her body to avoid getting hit full force. She really shouldn't get distracted if she wanted to walk away on her own legs.

The pink haired girl prepared another powerful strike and swung her shinai. Fate was readying herself to parry when with an inaudible click a flash of light blinded her. She had just closed her eyes when pain exploded in her right elbow.

"**Who the hell took a picture with the flash on?**" If the way Signum pointed her shinai in the direction the light had come from didn't give away how downright murderous she felt, certainly her voice did.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry Ritten-sama, it was an accident," the guilty girl stuttered under the furious girl's glare.

"No. you're not sorry enough yet. But don't worry, you'll be soon enough."

Not really caring about what was going on there, Fate opened and closed her hand a couple of times. She felt a bit numb, Signum's wooden sword had hit a nerve, but it was nothing too serious, she'll just have a bruise.

"Hey, are you alright?" An hand had rested on her shoulder as a concerned voice reached her.

Fate turned and her brain and body froze.

"_Hey, are you alright?" An hand had rested on her shoulder as a concerned voice reached her._

_Fate Turned and saw a child who looked a bit bigger than her. She had brown hair in twin ponytails and two worried eyes the color of the sky that were looking right at her._

"Fate-chan?" Nanoha asked again, worried by the lack of response.

The blonde blinked trying to get rid of the sense of deja vu.

"Yes, it's nothing really. I'm fine." she answered.

She saw the brunette opening her mouth to protest her claim, but was interrupted by Ritten yelling from where she was manhandling the girl with the camera.

"Takamachi, do your damn duty as vice captain and bring Testarossa in the infirmary, I'll join you as soon as I'm done here."

"Ye- huh? I'm vice captain?" Takamachi apparently didn't remember that.

"Did you listen _at all _during the speech earlier?"

"...Infirmary. Come on Fate-chan, let me help you."

Help with what, since she had just been hit on her arm, Fate had no idea, but she followed obediently when the other girl grabbed her left hand and pulled her along. She watched their linked hands, one thought clear on her mind.

'_Her hand is warm..._'

They reached the nurse office very soon since it was strategically near the dojo where the most accidents happened. Takamachi entered without knocking and gave Fate a gentle tug when the blonde hesitated. Even if this was only an infirmary, she really didn't like hospitals and places like that. Too many bad memories.

"Klarer-sensei, we need you to look at someone," the older girl called out to the school nurse.

"Ah, is that you Nanoha-chan? I guess I should have expected it with the kendo club meetings starting again. What happened this time, did some poor soul call Vita-chan shorty? Signum caught someone slacking off? Or maybe you tried to make another friend?"

'_Make a new friend?_' Fate thought perplexed.

There was a way to make friends that involved trips in the nurse office? She had heard about sleepovers and going to shopping, but this must be a method she hadn't heard about. Maybe she could ask Takamachi or this Klarer-sensei.

'_Wait, Klarer? Isn't that last name hers?_'

"Sensei," Takamachi whined, "that's mean."

"Right, sorry," A short haired blonde woman with amethyst eyes emerged from behind a curtain, "so, who's my newest patien- Little Fate?"

"Good afternoon, Sha- Klarer-sensei," Fate greeted smiling at the doctor and relaxing again after she had tensed up when walking into the infirmary.

"Don't call me that Fate, it's Shamal. I'm not really a teacher anyway, just the nurse, and I want you to call my name as usual."

"You know each other?" Takamachi asked curiously.

"Yeah, I treated her long ago. She was my first patient when I was still a student and started shifts in the hospital, and also the reason I became what I am today," Shamal told her ruffling Fate's golden strands.

The red eyed girl didn't oppose the action, and seemed instead to enjoy it since her lips twitched upwards.

"Now, let me check her up. Where did she got hurt?" Shamal inquired addressing Nanoha.

"I'm fine," Fate spoke up before her companion could answer.

Shamal gave her a flat look.

"If you think, even just for a second, that I'd believe those three words when they're coming from you, then you clearly don't remember who you're talking with Fate-chan. Really, it's ironic that it was Nanoha-chan bringing you here, you're two of a kind."

The two classmates looked at each other curiously.

"Last year, this knuckle-head," Shamal said rapping her knuckles on Nanoha's head," came to school to work for the school festival even if she had caught the flu and had a high fever. She kept working until she collapsed, and as soon as she regained consciousness she tried to get back to it. I had to strap her to the bed."

"Nyahahah, you're making it sound worse than it was."

"Not at all. Although little Fate-chan was even worse. This one has a really high pain tolerance on top of being irresponsible about her own health.

"When I first met her she hadn't eaten decently in a week, had multiple bruises all over her body, a dislocated shoulder and three cracked ribs one of which had actually punctured a lung. And she kept repeating she was fine. The worst part was that the head doctor had actually believed her, though, if I didn't go against him and did as I pleased who knows what'd have happened."

As Shamal ranted, Nanoha couldn't help but gape at what she was hearing. What the hell had happened that Fate was hurt so badly?

"You're right, I'm sorry Shamal. But it's different now," Fate said with a little melancholic smile.

"Yeah, I guess that's true," the doctor acquiesced, "but I also know you still have that silly ideas that you shouldn't bother people because of your health, and I know for a fact you still have an hard time saying no when someone asks you a favor. Now, where did this little idiot get hurt?"

"She got hit on her right arm, on the elbow where there aren't protections," Nanoha answered.

"Mh, maybe it's better if you slip your arm out of the sleeve. You'll have to change anyway afterward."

Fate obeyed Shamal instructions and freed her right arm. As she did so, Nanoha felt her face grow warmer. Earlier that day, when they had changed during P.E. she hadn't spared a thought about it because Hayate and her grabby hands, as well as all the others, were around. But now there was just the two of them and Shamal.

A glint caught Nanoha's eye. She had never noticed because Fate was wearing it under her clothes, but she had a necklace. It was a silver chain that had something hanging from it, but the blue eyed girl couldn't see what it was because it was hidden under her shirt.

When she realized she was staring at Fate's chest, Nanoha hurriedly looked out of the window.

Someone knocked on the door before opening it and coming inside. It was Signum and Hayate.

"Nanoha-chan, you missed the show!" The latter enthusiastically joined her

"No shouting in my office, Yagammel," Shamal reprimanded with a serene smile.

That woman could be evil.

"You too!" Hayate made a scene of crying on Nanoha's shoulder.

Meanwhile, Signum approached her former opponent.

"Testarossa, are you hurt badly?"

"I'm fine." Fate was starting to sound like a broken record, it was at least the third time she repeated that.

"Good. I offer you my apologies for hitting you, I didn't have time to stop the momentum. I was really enjoying or duel, I hope we can have a rematch when your arm is completely healed."

"Yes, I'd like that too." Fate answered smiling a bit shyly.

"Very well, I must return to the dojo now. Sorry for intruding Klarer-sensei." Signum bowed to the nurse.

"Not at all, come anytime," Shamal sing songed.

The pink haired student left the room rather self-consciously. Personally Hayate found it cute and fun to watch how Signum tried to remain cool and composed even in front of her crush, especially when there were others in the room.

But now that she left, there was another friend with a crush to focus her efforts on.

It had been a difficult choice staying behind to witness Signum thrashing that photographer instead of following Nanoha-chan and Fate, but she'd never get to know what the pink haired kendo captain really did if she didn't see it herself.

These two, on the other hand, were with Shamal, who was one of the best and most reliable sources Hayate could hope for. Making a mental note to ask the blonde doctor about that later, Hayate put an arm over her friend's shoulders.

"I'm impressed Nanoha-chan, from how defensive you've acted recently I didn't think you'd let Signum handle the idiot who caused this incident," she whispered in her ear.

"Signum wouldn't go easy on someone who broke the rules of her dojo and interrupted a duel in which she was having fun. Besides I can hunt her down later, once I'm sure Fate-chan is alright," Nanoha answered keeping her voice low.

She considered her next words for a second before sharing her thought with Hayate.

"I don't think this was really an incident. That girl is one of Chrono's fans, isn't she? And it may be just a coincidence, but Quattro had left for a couple of minutes and returned with that sneer plasted on her face just before this mess happened."

The cosplay-loving girl considered her observations for a couple of seconds before giving her opinion.

"Chrono's fanclub never really did anything that could turn out very dangerous, but if that four eyed witch pushed them then it's a definite possibility."

The two brunettes went silent as they thought about it. They were watching Shamal put a bandage around Fate's elbow to keep the cream she rubbed on it from being smeared on the girl's clothes.

"All done, you can go now." Shamal had finished. "Here, a lollipop for being good."

"Thank you," Fate thanked in her soft voice standing up.

Really what was up with teachers giving her candies?

"Oh, don't make that face. I need to keep some sugary treats, half the students end up here because they're anemic after skipping breakfast." Shamal reassured her, "If you want to thank me why don't you stop by my place to say hi one of these days? Rein would be happy to see you again too," Shamal prodded her while washing her hands.

Nanoha could feel Hayate's arm tense up before relaxing once again. She had no reason to feel jealous, after all the blonde already had Chrono. And his whole fanclub was after her head just for that too.

Fate came to stand in front of Takamachi after slipping her jacket back on, not really sure about what she should do. She was cleared to go, but the older girl had brought her here and leaving without her would have been rude.

"Takamachi-sempai..." She began with no real idea about what she was going to say.

"Nanoha. Call me Nanoha, there's no need to be so formal Fate-chan." Especially since she herself had thrown formality out of the window from the very first second she saw this girl's captivating burgundy eyes.

"Na...noha..." Fate tried out her name, liking out it rolled out of her tongue.

"And I'm Hayate, remember me? We paired up in P.E. this morning." She barged into the conversation from her spot over Nanoha's shoulder with a merry wave, "why don't you two go back and change? Club activities have ended for the day, anyway, and I have to talk with Shamal about something."

While Fate was gently pushed out with Nanoha, she caught the latter smiling sheepishly at her before her hand was grasped once again by the older girl.

'_It really is warm..._'


	6. Chapter 6

I don't know if I'm happy with how this chapter turned out technically. I'm not sure if it flows well, I fear the scenes feel separated and disjointed. I tried to fix it but I'm not sure how well that turned out. Nonetheless, I threw in it a bunch of things I had wanted to write and even some fluff that came out of nowhere.  
For those of you who want to play the guessing game, you'll find some rather heavy hints about the past, and a little one about a connection between two side characters (the same one I hinted at only very slightly in past chapters).  
On a last note, some time ago a reviewer asked how long this story would be. Back then I answered that it'd probably be longer than 10 chapters. Judging by how things are evolving I can correct that estimation and tell you that I shouldn't have problems reaching 30. (actually writing this makes me feel anxious and excited at the same time)  
Enjoy

**-o-o-**

**-o-o-**

_Nanoha trudged down the road checking the buildings every three steps._

_She had just turned nine years old a few days ago and was now big enough to make little errands for her parents. In fact, that is what she was doing now. _

_Her mother had forgot to buy the milk and a light bulb had went out and, since both her siblings were busy with school stuff, Momoko had asked her to go buy those two things while she was running the bakery._

_The little girl had felt proud that she was trusted with doing something like this on her own now that she was grown up. Nanoha was also determined to show she could complete the task quickly and efficiently._

_The blue eyed child was checking her surroundings once again to make sure of where she was heading when something else caught her eye. It was a little girl, way smaller than Nanoha herself, probably not even in elementary school yet.  
_

_Nanoha felt curious, such a small child shouldn't go around on her own. Maybe she was lost?_

_As she observed her for a while longer, though, she noticed the blonde was dragging her feet and leaning heavily on the wall. __Her clothes were dirty and had tears in them, and her head was crowned by a messy and unkempt bundle of dirty blonde hair. __Nanoha walked closer and saw how the little child clutched her stomach. She could also hear her breathing weirdly, as if she was panting after running a marathon._

_Now worried, Nanoha came to stand beside the blonde and rested an hand on her shoulder to catch her attention._

"_Hey, are you alright?" she asked in a concerned voice._

_The child turned toward her a pair of beautiful but desperate and pained burgundy eyes. The brunette was momentarily taken aback by them but, as the blonde stumbled, Nanoha wrapped her arms around her smaller and fragile frame._

_Nanoha thought she looked ill, so half carrying half dragging the unresponsive girl, she made her way to the nearby first aid hospital._

**-o-o-**

The notes of a j-pop song resounded in the bedroom, waking Nanoha up from her slumber. Her hand flailed around randomly a couple of times before she got her cellphone and turned the alarm off.

The now awake girl stretched and made her way to the bathroom, but outside that door she found the first problem of her day. This particular problem was named Kyouya Takamachi, a 22 years old boy and her elder brother. Ha was standing in front of the door, banging it rather loudly.

"Miyuki do you plan to get married, have children, grow old and die in there? You're taking forever, and there's other people who need it!"

Said girl, who happened to be Kyouya and Nanoha's sister, opened the door with a glare on her face and started arguing with her elder brother by a year about how tactless, rude, and plain annoying she thought he was.

Luckily for her, Nanoha had become a morning person during her junior high years, so she had the promptness required to seize her chance. She stepped around her two bickering siblings and closed the bathroom door behind her, pointedly ignoring Kyouya's scream of anguish.

A breakfast with her family later, during which Kyouya kept muttering about moving out and going to live with his girlfriend -who happened to be Suzuka's sister, Shinobu- Nanoha said her goodbyes to her parents and siblings and went to school.

She arrived there earlier than she used to and stopped by the entrance, waiting for her friends as well as a certain someone else who had been on her mind a lot since the start of the school term.

Hayate was the first to arrive, followed shortly by Suzuka and Arisa who came together, and curiously enough, so did Yuuno and Vita, although the mystery was quickly explained when they noticed the blond boy was passing the short girl his notes.

While they kept standing near the entrance, the close group of friends could overhear some of the rumors that were running wild across the school campus. However, unlike the last time, Nanoha listened to them with a big broad grin on her face.

Despite the numerous witnesses, or maybe exactly because of them, there were already two dozens of different versions about what exactly Signum had done to the poor soul who caused Fate-chan to get hurt. Nanoha especially liked the one that said her captain had tore out that girl's heart, stabbed it with her shinai and then made her eat it.

Why or how that one had managed to spread was a mystery.

"I knew I should have played truant and skipped the music club meeting," Suzuka was lamenting, "kendo club always gives birth to the best gossips around here."

"Personally I'm more worried about what Nanoha's planning to do now," Yuuno interjected, "I know that look. You're going to wage war, aren't you?"

"Of course! Fate-chan is my friend, I can't let a bunch of jealous sore losers bully her. And I certainly cannot allow Quattro to execute her evil mastermind plans just because she's a fmgphrm-" Nanoha couldn't tell her friends what exactly she thought Quattro was because Suzuka had clapped her hand over her mouth.

"We're on school grounds Nanoha-chan, if you finished that sentence and someone overheard you, you could get expelled. Or worse, someone could tell what kind of language you used to Momoko-san."

Takamachi Momoko, Nanoha's mother, had weird and arcane powers over every member of her family. It was something no one could really explain, but displeasing the sunny woman was simply not an option.

"Anyway, since Nanoha just claimed Fate's a friend, does it mean that it's her we're waiting here?" Arisa asked with some annoyance.

They had been standing near the entrance for a couple of minutes now, but only Nanoha and Hayate knew why. Maybe Vita too, but it was hard to read the short girl's thoughts because she was still busy reading Yuuno's notes on history class.

"Brilliant deduction Arisa. Yes we're here to be witnesses of Nanoha-chan's blossoming romance," Hayate proclaimed before getting ensnared into a choke-hold and being noogied harshly, "Agh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it was a joke, you violent girl, let me go."

"I'm not violent, you're just annoying." Takamachi's brand of logic, Nanoha had picked it up from her siblings.

"Vita-chan, say something," Hayate whined.

"Noogie her another time for me." She didn't even lift her eyes from the notebook.

"You're horrible, why am I friends with you?" The short haired brunette stomped her foot on the ground petulantly, like a child throwing a tantrum.

"Because she's adorable in those frilly dresses you like to make," Suzuka reminded her.

Nanoha tuned out the rest of the morning madness they considered a conversation and stared at the TSAB high school students making their way to the school building. She had made sure to come extra early so that she could meet Fate-chan when she came.

The first sign that she had finally arrived were the angry whispers coming from a group of girl on Nanoha's right. The reason for their anger became evident as the blonde wasn't alone. Chrono Harlaown was walking beside her, carrying her schoolbag, a sight that gave Nanoha mixed feelings.

On one hand he was less useless than he had been yesterday, which was good, but on the other hand this public and blatant display could very well worsen Fate-chan's position, and that was bad. At least he wasn't holding her hand, something Nanoha had done the previous day. The thought, unrelated to everything else, still put her in a good mood for some reason.

"Hello Fate-chan, how is your arm?" Nanoha smiled at the blonde who reciprocated the gesture.

"Tak- Nanoha," Fate corrected her way of addressing her, "good morning. I'm fine, thank you for asking."

"Takamachi?" the black haired boy standing beside the blonde asked, "I remember you from last year in kendo club. I heard you took my place as vice captain, congratulations."

"Thank you." Nanoha tried her hardest to mean it despite how irritated she felt.

"So you're friends with Fate?" he asked.

"We're in the same class too," Nanoha added. She had felt the need to brag about how she could see the blond all morning.

"Well, that's great," Chrono said smiling, "then, if you're going to class together, can I ask you to help her with her schoolbag?" He lifted it to emphasize his point.

"Chrono..." Fate looked mortified.

"As you know she hurt her arm, so it'd be better if she didn't strain it," He continued merrily ignoring her, "And also, please take care of her, she's not really good at relating with others and has very few friends."

Fate shuffled and looked down at her feet, clearly embarrassed by what he was saying, but Nanoha couldn't be mad at him when it was evident the black haired boy was just teasing her with good intentions. She'd do the same in his shoes, especially because Fate-chan was extra cute when acting shy.

Besides he had just given her an excuse to get closer to her. Because, as much as she claimed they were friends, all they did so far was saying each other their names. While it was a good start, Nanoha wanted to know more about her younger classmate.

"We'll take good care of Fate-chan, don't worry," she told him while grabbing the offered bag.

"Thanks then. I'll see you later Fate," he said his goodbyes and left, leaving only the group of Nanoha's friends and their hopefully newest addition Fate, who shuffled a bit and had a light blush on her face.

"I can carry my bag, you know, you don't have to carry it for me. I don't want to bother you all." Her voice was soft as always but also very clear.

"It's no problem at all Fate-chan," Nanoha smiled gently at her, then she couldn't resist teasing her, "Oh, I see, you don't want me to touch your things. I understand, sorry, it was so rude of me." She made an expression akin to that of a kicked puppy.

Fate's reaction was immediate as she tried frantically to reassure her.

"No no no no, it's not that. I just didn't want to bother you, really, I didn't mean it like that."

Nanoha's lips twitched. This girl... she was just too cute, it was as if no one teased her before. It really made her want to hug her, and Nanoha wasn't the only one thinking it. In fact, Hayate squeed and glomped the blonde.

"Aren't you adorable? I want to dress you up... and maybe undress you too." Hayate never showed much self-control, and all her friends knew she usually didn't mean half the things she said, but these words and her wicked grin really pissed Nanoha off.

For her part, Fate blinked with a confused expression on her face. It took her several moments to grasp what the short haired girl hanging all over her was trying to say. When she finally understood the meaning of her words and what they implied, her face became as red as her beautiful eyes.

"Ha. Ya. Te." Nanoha grabbed her fellow brunette and pulled her off the clearly embarrassed out of her mind blonde.

Chuckling, Suzuka decided to take the lead.

"Forgive her, Hayate-chan can be very... enthusiastic, but she's a good girl deep down. I guess you already know Nanoha and Vita from kendo, and the two blonds are Yuuno -she indicated the bespectacled boy who grinned at her- and Arisa -the girl gave a little wave- and finally, I'm Suzuka."

"Ah. Nice to meet you." Fate bowed more formally than one would expect from a high school classmate. And her face was still somewhat red.

"We should get to class, the bell will ring soon," Yuuno observed looking at his watch.

"You're right Yuuno-kun," Nanoha agreed, finally letting Hayate out of her choke-hold, "we can talk more later. Why don't you have lunch together with us Fate-chan?"

Nanoha was silently praying for a positive answer and hoping that the blonde wouldn't already have plans with Chrono. That boy shouldn't monopolize her classmate and potential new friend like that.

"Eh? I-I mean, sure, I'd be happy to..." A shy little smile appeared on Fate's face, and once again Nanoha had to hold Hayate back and drag her inside.

**-o-o-**

The morning went on uneventfully during what Hayate had dubbed "the dead hours". Basically they were the time when students had classes and they had to pay attention to the lessons instead of their rightful teenage drama.

It was finally time for lunch break and this time Arisa dragged the whole group, which now included Fate, in the schoolyard to eat out in the open instead of being cramped up in the cafeteria. Suzuka may have also put in a word about the location since, from what Hayate had told her about the incident during the kendo club meeting, an enclosed space packed with students wouldn't be the safest place to bring Fate to.

They sat down on two benches with a table in the middle, one of the many scattered across the TSAB schoolyard specifically for the students who liked to eat outside.

"Waaah... Vita-chan why does your lunch always look better than mine," Hayate whined making clumsy attempts to steal some bites, all of which were fended off.

"What the hell, they're exactly the same!" And they were.

"Vita and Hayate live beside one another," Nanoha whispered to Fate who was eying the banter curiously, "so they actually take turns making lunch. That's why their bentos always match each other."

"Remember that time it was Vita's turn and she handed Hayate some money saying to go buy something in the cafeteria?" Yuuno snickered elbowing Nanoha who chuckled herself.

The blue eyed girl, however, turned her attention back to the other blonde.

"What is it Fate-chan? You seem troubled."

"It's nothing. I just..." Fate tried to came up with the right words, "This morning before class, you said we're... friends?"

"Well, yes. Why, don't you want to be friends Fate-chan?" Nanoha felt a pang in her heart, she really really _really_ wanted to be friends with this little gentle and frail looking girl.

"It's not that. I'd be really happy, it's just... I don't really know how, or what I'm supposed to do," Fate confessed fidgeting.

"It's easy, becoming someone's friend is really simple. You just-"

"Get hit by Nanoha-chan." Vita interrupted what said girl was saying.

"Vita!" she protested.

"What? It's true! You hit me, you throttled Hayate and you slapped Arisa," Vita defended her position, "The only reason you didn't have to hit Suzuka is because she was being bullied by Arisa back then."

"That wasn't bullying Vita-chan," Hayate interjected, "that was our friend going tsundere and making an ass out of herself because she didn't know how to express her love for her crush."

Hayate and Arisa disappeared under the table when the latter jumped on the first to strangle her. The others diplomatically ignored the whole ordeal.

"As for Yuuno," Vita continued her previous argument, "if I were him I'd just be happy you haven't shown any interest in him, otherwise he'd probably have received a rather strong hit that'd have rendered him less of a man."

"Quit spreading false rumors about me, you're making me sound like a soul-eating devil." Nanoha slapped the redhead upside the head to emphasize her words.

"Ouch. That just proved my point, you violent friend abuser demon!"

Nanoha was about to further prove Vita's point by hitting her again when the sound of wind chimes distracted her. She looked around and at the nearby branches but couldn't find where the sound came from.

"What are you looking for, Nanoha-chan?" Suzuka asked noticing her movements.

"I think I heard some wind chimes, but I cannot find them."

Hayate, who in the meantime had reemerged from under the table, stared at her for five whole seconds before bursting out laughing until she was tearing up. Suzuka was trying her hardest not to do the same.

Out of the corner of her eye Nanoha saw Fate blushing heavily and staring down at the table.

"What is it?" a now confused Nanoha asked.

"That was Fate giggling at your idiocy, you idiot," Vita said with a smirk.

"Eh?" Nanoha blushed as hard as the blonde as she realized she had just made an utter fool of herself.

As her friends laughed some more at her embarrassing honest mistake, Nanoha thought about how nice Fate's laugh had sounded. It really was just like wind chimes, a pure, crystal sound.

Some minutes passed like that before a new topic was introduced in their conversation.

"Hey Fate, can I ask you something?" Suzuka smiled innocently. Much too innocently for her to not be up to something.

"Yeah, of course," the blonde had no objections.

"How long have you known Harlaown?"

It was obvious to the purple haired girl that the two must have met before meeting at school. They were far too close, and the school council president wasn't the kind of guy who'd go out with someone he didn't know.

"It's been nine years now. I was six and he eight when Lindy introduced us," Fate answered honestly with a little smile remembering the episode.

She had been a nervous wreck back then, having just lost everything and nearly dying herself. She didn't know how to feel about having once again an elder sibling after two years of being an only child, but she was terrorized by the thought of disappointing Lindy like she had her original mother.

"Lindy?" Hayate repeated perplexed, the smell of fresh first-hand gossip distracting her from her renewed battle for Vita's lunch.

"Fate!" A male voice called walking toward them.

Nanoha nearly growled. Did that boy need to get near Fate-chan every single waking moment? She could understand he was her boyfriend, but couldn't he leave the blonde alone with her new friends for more than a minute?

"Chrono. Is there some problem?" the red eyed wonder turned her attention to him.

"Sorry to interrupt, I was going to just text you but I'm out of credit." He shook his cellphone a bit before continuing, "I just wanted to let you know mother sent me a message. She's going out to have dinner with her colleague."

"Lindy is? It's alright I guess, so it's going to be just the two of us at home tonight?" Fate asked for confirmation.

"Yeah, I wanted to know if you're ok with take-away? I know you have field and track this afternoon and I have to stop by for a council meeting again about the new martial arts club. They've been requesting for all the permissions late and now we have to rush in order to finalize everything. Strictly speaking they shouldn't even be allowed to form their club so late, but Nakajima's younger sister begged us."

"Subaru-chan, right? I thought she told Nanoha-chan she was going to be in the field and track team," Suzuka spoke up.

"Yeah, I think that's her name. And she's probably going to follow both clubs, there's a lot of students who do that. That's why we had so much work planning out the schedules of the clubs, we had to consider which ones were best to have different meeting days. We were working out the martial arts into the schedule yesterday, that's why I couldn't come see Ritten sorting out the new recruits," Chrono explained, "Anyway, it's all settled for tonight then?"

Fate nodded, assuring him she had no problems with his plan to eat take-away, and Chrono left soon after saying goodbye.

When the blonde turned back, however, she found her six classmates staring at her. Hayate and Suzuka in particular were eying her like they had just found Santa's hidden gift factory, Yuuno and Vita had a raised eyebrow as if they had just heard something curious, Arisa's face was red as a tomato, and finally Nanoha was... trying to murder her lunch. But somehow she looked more dejected than angry.

"So... dinner at home just you and Chrono-kun," Suzuka prodded Fate, "you're really close, aren't you?"

"Yes, I guess we are. But, I mean, it's normal, I think?" He was her big brother after all.

Furthermore, Lindy had an important job in the police, and being a police officer meant that she could get called at odd hours, so the two siblings could end up being each other's only company at times. It wasn't often, especially since Lindy was pretty high ranked and could push her workload onto others -something she used to take advantage of when her children were younger- but it happened from time to time.

"Yep, normal." Hayate was grinning like a cat who ate a whole flock of canaries.

_'Oh my god, this is almost better than finding out Signum's crush_'

While Hayate was enjoying being the first to find out about this really juicy bit of info, two other people were anything but.

Nanoha felt like she had just lost the same competition she thought she had won earlier that morning because she held Fate-chan's hand whereas Chrono didn't. Now it turned out the black haired boy wasn't just her boyfriend, but also a childhood friend. And Fate knew his mother and was on a first name basis with her. And they're going to eat dinner at Chrono's. Just the two of them.

'_Damn, who knows what are their plans for tonight. Really, what is Chrono's mother thinking, hell, what is Fate's mother thinking? My mom would have never allowed me to do something like that, and dad would have killed any boy suggesting it. Unless their parents are planning to get them__ married__ as soon as Fate-chan turns sixteen. An arranged marriage?_'

While Nanoha's thoughts began to wander wildly from one unlikely scenario to another, a second person was harboring murderous thoughts. This one's, though, were directed exclusively and entirely at Fate.

The girl in question was a third year and a classmate of Chrono as well as an hardcore member of his fanclub. Noticing the irritating girl who had dared hang out with him and monopolize their president's time, she had sit nearby, waiting for her friends to leave her alone so that she could... have a word with the blonde wench.

Quattro Shiruba, a classmate of the annoying blonde pest, had given the Chrono fanclub information about this Testarossa, about how she was a cheating slouch and how Quattro had seen her seduce and deceive Harlaown-sama. So it was decided that something had to be done.

They had thought that after the "incident" during the kendo match the slut would back off, but what she had just eavesdropped... this... was unacceptable. Fate Testarossa needed a lesson.

**-o-o-**

Lunch break was about to end and a downhearted Nanoha found herself alone as her friends had hurried back inside while she was lagging behind.

She sighed looking at the sun shining in the schoolyard. This morning had began so well, and with just two sentences in a brief conversation her day had turned upside down.

'_Why does it even bother me so much?_'

Nanoha didn't have an answer for that question. She couldn't explain what kind of power Fate had over her, she only knew that since the first time their eyes had met she felt a deep desire to help and protect the younger girl, to be there for her and become her friend.

Something about those beautiful deep burgundy eyes had awakened a strong protectiveness and longing for friendship and closeness like Nanoha hadn't felt in years. But it seemed as if Fate-chan didn't need her when she already had Mr. Perfect.

The brunette sighed again disposing of the trash from lunch. She turned to make her way back into the school building when she found the blonde who was so much on her mind standing in front of her.

Nanoha hadn't realized she had stayed behind, she though she had gone ahead with the others.

But Fate hadn't, and now there was just the two of them in a rather secluded part of the schoolyard, hidden away from the other rapidly leaving students.

For a time neither of them said anything.

"Fate-chan?" Nanoha asked once she found her voice.

"About... about what you were saying earlier... about becoming someone's friend. Could you... tell me what is it that I should do?" Fate sounded hesitant and looked at her like a lost little child who didn't know her way home and was asking for help.

Nanoha smiled gently and instinctively took one of her hands in hers.

"Becoming someone's friend is really simple," Nanoha explained, "You say their name. At first, that's all you need. Not 'You' or 'Hey there'. Not stuff like that. You look at the person right in the eye and you call that person by name."

Fate seemed mesmerized by her words.

"...Nanoha?" she said tentatively.

The blue eyed girl nodded, her gentle smile widening a bit.

"Nanoha," Fate repeated more surely.

"Yes, Fate-chan?"

"Thank you, Nanoha." a soft happy smile blossomed on Fate's face and Nanoha was taken aback by how stunningly beautiful the other girl was like that, "Thank you for becoming my friend."

Nanoha felt the blonde squeeze her hands briefly before letting them go. She was frozen on the spot as she watched Fate turn and walk back inside.

Slowly, Nanoha brought her hand up and rested it on her chest. Underneath it, her heart was pounding stronger than it ever did before.


	7. Chapter 7

I'm loosing my concentration. I had more problems than I should have writing this chapter, and in the end I didn't write all I wanted, mainly because I reached my set word-count for a chapter before I could write everything. So I ended up leaving a little cliffhanger, and I'll continue in the next chapter, although the more perceptive readers can probably guess where I'm heading.  
Also, the (in)famous "connection-between-two-side-characters" mystery gets another subtle hint. Next chapter there will be a very big one, which will most likely give it away. Also, I've received a particularly helpful review that made me notice I needed to work a bit more with Nanoha's character. I tried to put something for that in this chapter, so let me know what you think.  
Don't be afraid to be critic in your review, tell me if something isn't clear, what you like and what you don't, you'll help me write a better story.

**-o-o-**

**-o-o-**

Fate entered the room carrying a tray with a hot steaming cup of tea on it. She neared the bed and put it on on the nightstand before turning toward the bed itself. A weak groan came from the figure who rested there.

"How are you feeling Lindy?" Fate asked softly, concern evident in her voice.

"Horrible. I should have fled as soon as I knew it was a home-made meal," Lindy answered her daughter with a grimace on her face.

Friday night the woman had back from her dinner with her colleague looking pale, only to start throwing up since she woke up Saturday morning. Lindy had then proceeded to spend the whole weekend in bed with an excruciating stomach ache.

It was now Monday morning, and while the teal haired woman didn't feel like something was trying to turn her insides into ground meat, she was still really weak. She felt grateful that her little Fate had thought to bring her her tea before leaving for school.

Furthermore, the blonde girl had spent the whole weekend taking care of her, bringing her soup, fetching a blanket and an extra pillow, and simply keeping her company. Truly a caring daughter, so unlike that ungrateful son of her that was Chrono. He left her, his own mother, to go on a date with his new girlfriend Amy, who he hadn't even bother to introduce to her yet.

'_But I'll get back at him. I just have to get the photos of his fist bath as a baby for when he'll bring Amy to introduce us._'

Her revenge already planned out, Lindy glanced at her little girl who was busying herself tidying up the room a bit.

"Fate?" the teal haired woman called.

"Yes, Lindy?"

"Could you do something to help me feel better sooner?" she requested with an hopeful smile.

"Anything." Determined red eyes looked back at her, and Lindy Harlaown knew that her girl would literally do anything she asked now. It was heartwarming in a way, but, knowing Fate's past, also very sad. She really hoped Fate would be less compliant sometimes.

This time, however, she'll take advantage of the situation.

"Can you call me that? Just once." Lindy didn't need to elaborate and waited silently for her daughter to find it in herself to comply with her selfish wish.

"... I have to go now, or I'll be late for the bus. Get well soon...mom."

Hearing that last word made Lindy contemplate the good points of getting food poisoning as a blissful smiled lightened her face.

On the other side of the bedroom door Fate took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She felt guilty for being so weak. She knew Lindy would love nothing more than to be called mom or mother on a regular basis, but the blonde just couldn't say those words unless she made a conscious effort. And even now, saying it made her feel like an electric shock run through her system.

Looking at her cellphone, Fate saw that she had to hurry if she didn't want to loose the bus.

Her trip was mostly uneventful since she had gotten used to the discreet glances the other students wearing her same uniform threw her way. She still didn't know what caused them and, to be honest, by now she didn't even think there was a specific reason.

Fate got off the bus and started walking toward the school, but today something was different after all. She felt anxious and eager like she never had been before. Her heart was pounding and her eyes scanned her surroundings again and again, unconsciously looking for the girl with the side ponytail and eyes that reflected the sky. Nanoha.

The blond had thought about her and what they talked about all weekend. Holding her soft and warm hand in her own when Nanoha had explained how to become friends and... They were friends now, weren't they? Fate thought they were, after all she did what the brunette had said was necessary.

Once she reached the school complex, Fate's eyes finally spotted her. Nanoha was standing there, strangely with only the blond boy, Yuuno, keeping her company, while the rest of her little group was nowhere in sight.

Wondering about where the others were, the blonde walked towards the two and joined them.

"Hello, Fate-chan," Nanoha greeted her with an happy smile that could lighten up anyone's day.

"Hi Fate," Yuuno said with considerable less enthusiasm.

"Good morning Nanoha, Yuuno," she answered them.

The blonde hesitated, not knowing if she should ask why there were only the two of them or if she should let it be. The matter was taken off her hands when Nanoha spoke up again.

"Let's go, the others are already inside. With a bit of luck Vita and Hayate should still be by the lockers."

"I wonder what that guy wanted to talk about with Hayate, though," Yuuno said, "it seemed suspicious, don't you think Nanoha? Like they were planning something."

"Hayate is always planning something, and whatever it is I fear we'll be caught up in it too." Nanoha grimaced at that though.

Just then they reached the lockers in time to hear said evil-plotter brunette sneeze. She was standing by her locker with Vita, undoubtedly waiting for Nanoha and Yuuno. The blond boy whispered something at Nanoha who rolled her eyes. Watching the byplay of the two Fate felt a bit like an outsider and an intruder.

Trying to ignore the feeling, the red eyed girl went to her locker. She had just opened it, when she found a white letter she had definitely never seen before on top of her things.

**-o-o-**

That morning Nanoha arrived early and settled in front of the school entrance. Just like she had done the previous week, she was waiting anxiously for Fate.

Arisa and Suzuka got there early too, almost at the same time as Nanoha actually.

"So, you're waiting Fate again, aren't we?" Arisa asked tapping her foot while staring at Nanoha.

"Be nice Arisa," Suzuka chided her, "Nanoha-chan just wants to meet her new friend. Oh, and probably make sure Harlaown-kun didn't do anything inappropriate last Friday."

The purple haired girl somehow kept smiling beatifically even under Nanoha's glare.

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, we have to get in if we want to get those things before classes start. Sorry Nanoha, we can't stay here with you," Arisa apologized.

"She's right," Suzuka agreed, then let out a deep sigh, "I guess I'll have to ask Hayate about the juicy details she'll get out of Fate-chan. Oh, speaking of Hayate, be careful today Nanoha-chan."

"Huh?"

When the brunette turned to ask what that warning was about her two friends had already gone inside. Suzuka always knew what she was talking about. How she sometimes managed to have even more information than Hayate herself was a mystery, but a useful one. Nanoha made a mental note to keep her guard up.

They had just left when Yuuno arrived, and Hayate and Vita joined soon after him.

The four of them had barely greeted each other and just started chatting idly about nothing in particular when another boy called out to one of them.

"Hayate! Just the one I was looking for." The boy had brown hair and Nanoha knew she had seen him somewhere recently.

"Vice-kun, what might bring you to me?" Hayate asked with a mischievous smile patting a growling Vita's head.

"I have something you might be interested about," he answered playing with his camera, "what about making a deal?"

"Sure," Hayate grinned broadly at him, "sorry guys, I have to bargain. I'll see you in class."

"I'm coming with you," Vita interjected, "it's not save to be alone with that pervert, I don't trust him."

The two girls left without giving their friends time to reply.

"Well, that was unexpected. No wait, it wasn't. Hayate is always making weird deals with everyone on campus." Yuuno shook his head in a resigned manner, "I just hope she won't drag us into another absurd project."

"Nh."

The lack of an adequate response caught the blond boy's attention. He looked closer at his friend and noticed the slight frown marring her face and the worried glint in her eyes.

"Is something the matter Nanoha?" he asked concerned.

"No... Well..." She hesitated, "It's just, they all left."

Nanoha paused to gather her thoughts, then gave him a sad smile, "it's just something I was thinking about. In our group, if we were told to choose just one person as the one we considered our best friend, the one that knows us the most and that we share everything with, Suzuka and Arisa would choose each other and so would do Vita and Hayate.

"I mean, when something comes up they always end up backing each other like that, and I... I feel like I don't really belong sometimes. I must sound like a spoiled brat, I know that they're my friends, I trust them with my life, but... Ugh, this is so frustrating!"

"So, basically, you want someone who'd always put you first?" Yuuno asked tentatively, "is that why you're always running around making new friends, like with Fate?"

"I don't know," Nanoha answered biting her lower lip, "but I don't think that's the case with Fate-chan. You see, the first time I made eye contact with her I saw something in her eyes. It gave me a sense of deja vu and I felt like there was a connection. It's hard to explain, but I think we are, like, kindred spirits."

"Still, you've known her for just a week, maybe you shouldn't expect too much," Yuuno said gently, "and, well, in any case you'll still have me," he added almost as a second thought.

"You'll always be my best male friend, Yuuno-kun. But, since it turned out you're straight, there's no way I can make you double as my best girl friend too," Nanoha joked to get rid of the weird gloominess.

"I still can't believe you all just assumed I was gay," the blond boy huffed visibly irritated of being reminded of that particular mess.

"Well, it's just, you never ever showed the tiniest little bit of interest in any girl since we've known each other, and that was when we were ten," she defended a bit embarrassed by the argument. Really what kind of best friend just assumes things like that about their best friend?

"It's not that I had no interest in any girl," Yuuno murmured shuffling, "it's just that I..."

"Ah, look Yuuno-kun. Fate-chan arrived. Hello, Fate-chan," Nanoha greeted with her best smile.

"Hi Fate," Yuuno echoed trying not to sound as dejected as he felt.

"Good morning Nanoha, Yuuno." Fate hinted a bow with her head.

She was always so polite. Girls nowadays could get away with a 'yo' but she stuck to proper greetings. And the way her cheeks were coloring slightly as she visibly refrained herself from shuffling.

"Let's go, the others are already inside. With a bit of luck Vita and Hayate should still be by the lockers," Nanoha said turning.

If she hadn't done this she'd have ended up glomping the bundle of moe with gorgeous burgundy red eyes, and she knew Fate would have been embarrassed out of her mind. Nanoha didn't want to make the younger girl uncomfortable.

Walking toward the lockers she talked a bit with Yuuno, not trusting herself to control her own actions if she looked at Fate. When they reached their destination and noticed both hayate and Vita waiting there for them, the blond boy leaned down to whisper in Nanoha's ear.

"She sneezed, do you think her special powers alerted her we were cowering in fear while talking about her behind her back?"

The girl rolled her blue eyes at the lame joke and went to join her two old friends. Nanoha, however, also noticed out of the corner of her eye Fate going to her locker instead of following them. She hoped the blonde wasn't annoyed at her.

"Oh, Nanoha-chan." Hayate caught her attention, "You're free today, right? I need you to do a little something for me."

"A little something," she repeated remembering Suzuka's warning and feeling dread creep up her body, "what exactly would that be? Wait, don't tell me it has to do with whatever agreement you made with Vice-kun? No. Absolutely not."

"You don't understand Nanoha-chan." Hayate stopped her friend retreat by throwing an arm around her shoulders. She then leaned over and put her mouth near her ear and whispered, "if you do this for me I'll let you see the photos I bought from Vice."

"Photos you bought by promising him photos of me in weird get-ups, didn't you?" Nanoha felt a little annoyed, but she was so used to her friend's antics that by now her resistance was really more for show than anything else.

"Details, details," Hayate dismissed her argument with a wave of her hand, "the point here is that he gave me some pictures of something he saw in the weekend. Believe me, it's something you really would like to see too. It pertains your new blonde friend."

Nanoha followed Hayate's line of sight and caught Fate opening her locker.

"...ok, so what it is?" Nanoha acquiesced to her friend request.

"Ah, well..." Hayate seemed suddenly agitated, "if I tell you, do you promise me to keep your cool and not to do anything impulsi- Hey, what's that letter?"

Nanoha was sure she just got a real bad whiplash from the speed with which she turned to look at Fate-chan who was scrutinizing a letter in her hand.

"I don't know," she answered in her soft voice as red eyes turned toward them, "it was in my locker but it isn't mine."

"Oh my, my, my. That really looks an awful lot like a love letter," Hayate observed from her new spot, hovering over Fate's shoulder.

The blonde looked from the letter to the short haired brunette and back to the letter. She tilted her head and turned the white envelope in her hands, studying it.

"Really?"

"Well, you'd have to open and read it to be sure," Hayate conceded, "but it most likely is a love letter, what else could it be?"

Nanoha observed as Fate opened the envelope and started reading. Could it really be from someone who wanted to confess to the young blonde? It was hard to believe, not because she wasn't a bombshell, because let's face the facts, she may be fifteen but half the school would kill to have her body.

The brunette thought it must be foreign genes, if Fate had them it would also explain -or give a n excuse she could accept- why she was taller and bustier than Nanoha herself.

All that was beside the point, though. The matter was that everyone in the school knew about her and Chrono, one had to be deaf, blind and stupid to miss all the rumors going around. What was the point of asking out a girl who already had a boyfriend?

Nanoha watched as blond eyebrows came together as a frown became evident the more she read.

"Fate-chan?" Curious, Nanoha couldn't help stepping closer in the hopes of peeking at the letter's content.

"It asks me to meet them behind the school at lunch, alone," Fate told them closing the letter once more, then looked at her little audience, "what should I do?"

"What a stupid question, you should go, meet them, hear them out, and then reject them politely if you're not interested," Hayate answered, following every instruction with a tap on Fate's forehead with her index finger.

The short haired girl was about to begin one of her rants/lectures when she crashed against Fate with a yelp.

"Move it, loser. First period is going to start," Quattro, who had just hit her with her shoulder and pushed her, sneered at her.

"That was uncalled for, apologize." Vita, who had planted herself in front of the bespectacled girl, was glaring up at her. It was quite obvious that she'd either make the girl apologize or beat her down.

"What are you going to do, Eisen? Stomp on my foot again? That's the highest place you can hit after all," Quattro mocked.

Vita didn't leave anyone time to react before she disproved her claim by kicking her shin. She was already ready to give the annoying girl before her another kick when Arisa and Nanoha dragged her inside the classroom, just as Scaglietti rounded the corner.

"Shiruba, what did you do to your leg?" he asked indifferently seeing her jumping on one leg while holding the other.

"Nothing professor." Quattro knew that accusing someone who wasn't there anymore would get her nowhere.

With Scaglietti you had to have indisputable proof or you'd be better off saying nothing at all.

"Well, get in you all, then. You wouldn't want to be late, right? And get off Testarossa, Yagammel, I'm sure she can do without your harassing."

Hayate did so, grumbling over how long she'd have to put up with that stupid nickname.

"My students," Scaglietti started once they were all inside, "keep in mind this: friends, love, sex, family and religion. These are the nonsenses that will prevent you from reaching your goals in life. If you want something you'll have to study and work hard for it. And now, let's study a new theorem."

His wild and delirious rants aside, Nanoha didn't pay as much attention as she'd usually do to her math teacher. She was aware of Vita's struggling when the man kept picking her for random questions, and she was even more attentive to Quattro's frequent irritated glances toward Fate-chan. It seemed the amber eyed girl really took personal offense when the blonde bested her.

Also, the young Takamachi couldn't get out of her mind the whole thing about the mysterious photos that came into Hayate's possession. She said they were taken in the weekend, they had to do with Fate-chan, and they'd probably make her angry. What could they show? A topless Fate, maybe?

Nanoha hurriedly ducked her head and pretended to take notes.

_'Well, Vice took those pictures, and he does lurk near the changing rooms... But he'd have had to stalk Fate-chan, find where she lives and wait near her room for her to change. That's a bit too creepy as a weekend activity, even for him._'

Nanoha was still making wild guesses when lunch break finally came. She was going on autopilot, following Arisa and Suzuka, when she snapped out of it. Looking around, she noticed they had come to the nurse office.

"Are we eating lunch in the infirmary now?" she asked not really thrilled at the idea, "and where is Fate-chan?" she noticed the younger girl's absence.

"Well, Hayate-chan was just telling me about how Fate received a love letter this morning. I thought you were there, Nanoha-chan," Suzuka answered her.

"Oh. Right." How great, now Nanoha didn't feel hungry anymore.

"You know, this is really weird," Arisa commented.

"Yeah, who would send love letters to the known girlfriend of Mr. Perfect?" Yuuno wondered.

"No, not that. What I was talking about is these two -Arisa pointed with her chopsticks at Suzuka and Hayate- not stalking around and peeking behind the corner to see who had the balls to call out Fate."

Nanoha, Yuuno and Vita looked at the two notorious gossips.

"Now that you say that..." Yuuno started.

"...it really looks..." Nanoha continued.

"...suspicious." Vita concluded.

Hayate promptly glomped all three of them.

"Aww, you're so cute, finishing each other sentences. Suzuka, don't we have really cute friends?"

"Indeed," the purple haired girl agreed.

"Hey, tone it down guys," Shamal, who had just emerged from behind a curtain, scolded them, "this is still the infirmary. You shouldn't even be here."

"But Shamal-sensei, they were being so cute. All suspicious and scared, I just had to hug them." Hayate was grinning broadly, not intimidated in the least by either the older woman's reprimand nor her friends' glares as they tried, unsuccessfully, to get her off them.

"Whatever. So, why don't my two favorite students update their lovely sensei on the school latest rumors? Aside from Signum putting the fear of a pantheon of angry Gods in that girl who caused little Fate's visit here last week, I haven't heard much lately."

Shamal Klarer wasn't only the nurse of the school, she was also someone who shared Hayate and Suzuka's hobby of 'information gathering'. Vita just called them "the unholy triad of meddling and gossip". The opinion was shared by their friends wholeheartedly.

"Ah, the incident with the flash. But did you know that it most likely wasn't an accident?" Hayate asked nonchalantly sitting on Shamal's desk.

The simple fact the blonde woman allowed her to get away with such a behavior was evidence enough of their relationship being much more friendly than what usually was born between a student and a school nurse.

"You're saying that that girl intentionally disrupted Signum and little Fate's duel even if she knew that Signum would get mad at her? Why?" It was something totally unexpected, as far as Shamal remembered no one ever provoked the pink haired girl. Not even when she was a first year.

"A defective self-preservation instinct, and she's a member of the Chrono fanclub," Suzuka answered.

"So?" Amethyst eyes looked confused.

"Wait, you didn't hear about it?" Hayate asked swallowing her food hastily and nearly choking herself, "You didn't hear that our student council president, his excellency Chrono Harlaown got a girlfriend? Even the walls know that by now!"

"I heard some rumors about that. But what does that have to do with Fate?" Shamal asked crossing her arms with an huff.

"Fate _is _his girlfriend, obviously," Hayate proclaimed rolling her eyes.

There was a silent pause following that declaration.

"Oh. I see. Would you excuse me for a second?" Shamal, who was putting obviously a lot of effort into maintaining a blank face, didn't wait for an answer and robotically stood up and walked out of her own office.

As soon as the door closed behind her, the six second-years could hear the sound of muffled laughter coming from outside.

Suzuka frowned at the door.

"That's a weird reaction," she stated the obvious.

"Yes, we'll add Klarer-sensei's display to the ever increasing list of weird happening of today," Arisa commented uncaringly, "now going back to why neither you nor Hayate are stalking Fate, will you tell us why?"

"Because Fate is so pure and innocent I can get the whole story out of her later," Hayate explained, "and I can take advantage of the fact she isn't here to show Nanoha what I got from Vice."

"I hope for you it's going to be worth it," said girl commented, recalling what exactly Hayate traded for those pictures from the brown haired boy.

"It is, believe me. Just remember Nanoha-chan, you promised not to do anything stupid, impulsive, or that will get you expelled or in jail," the sort haired brunette reminded her friend before taking out three pictures and laying them down for everyone to see.

Nanoha's chopsticks snapped under the pressure of her grip.

**-o-o-**

Fate looked around as she arrived in the spot behind the school the letter had said to go. It was a scheduled place, hidden from view. Hayate had explained that most people didn't want an audience when confessing, especially if they were asking out someone who already had a boyfriend.

The blonde had been confused by the wink and mischievous smile that followed that comment, but she chalked it up to Hayate being weird. Her other friends seemed to have accepted that weirdness as a fact, so fate herself didn't ask about it.

Taking out the letter she had found in her locker earlier that morning, Fate read it again.

_We have to talk._

_At the clering near the changing rooms behind the school at lunch brake._

_Come alone._

Short, concise, to the point. Not really good for a love letter, Fate would give it a three out of ten. There were even two mistakes.

"Well, well, it seems the little blondie actually came."

Fate looked up and saw a group of five girls surrounding her. The one who spoke was a tall and had short brown hair, her face somewhat familiar. It took a couple of seconds for fate to remember where she had seen her before, in Chrono's class picture. So she was one of her classmates.

Looking at the other girls, however, Fate couldn't identify any of them.

More importantly, though, was the fact that it seemed that Hayate was wrong, having an audience wasn't a problem for whoever had put the letter in her locker. Unless this was a kind of planned mass-confession in which those five had agreed to come together and make her choose?

Fate wished Nanoha had come with her, the older girl was really good at explaining this kind of thing, social interactions and how to relate with others.

First thing first, though, there was something that had been bugging the blonde since she first read the letter in the morning.

"Ah, before we talk about what you called me here for, can I ask who wrote the letter that was in my locker?"

The girls exchanged glances before a dark green haired girl on the right stepped forward, "That would be me, why?"

"Well... I don't mean to offend you, but you forgot an 'a' when writing 'clearing'. Also, it should be lunch break, not brake," Fate said, "I'm sorry, but it's important to use correct grammar if you want your message to come across clearly."

She thought that maybe she should have tried harder to word it more gently, because the other girl's face turned really red and her fists started to tremble. For a second Fate thought she was embarrassed, but as the blonde noticed her eyes narrowing she recognized the anger rolling off the green haired girl.

"You little-"

"Calm down Aoi," the girl who spoke first stopped her, then turned to Fate "and you, little bitch. Maybe you don't understand the situation you're in."

"You know, it's ironic that you used the word 'bitch'. You all remind me strongly of a pack dogs. You are the alpha being the one on the offensive, and the others surrounding us are ready in case you need support.

"Anyway, since you mentioned it, as a matter of fact I don't really understand," Fate admitted, "why exactly did you want to talk with me?"

The red eyed girl had no idea of why, but her words seemed only to further anger the five girls around her. It was their fault, though, they could have explained themselves better. Sure, Fate wasn't good with people, but she consoled herself knowing that Hayate definitely was, and even her had misunderstood what the letter was about.

"Ok, listen here little smartass: if you know what's good for you, you'll stay away from Harlaown-sama from now on." The tall girl leaned down invading Fate's personal space.

"Chrono?" Fate titled her head, not understanding what the other girl was trying to say.

She knew what was good for her, and becoming Lindy's daughter and Chrono's sister was really the best thing to ever happen in her life.

The five girls gritted their teeth in anger.

"Harlaown-sama! Stay away from him, got it fucking brat?" Aoi, as her friend called her before, jumped into the conversation.

Although Fate wouldn't really call _this_ a conversation, in order to have one the members participating should have a minimum of manners and being able to expose their argument in a clear logic way. The cursing didn't exactly raise her opinion of her impromptu conversation partners.

"I don't think I can do that."

Aside from the fact that any of the five girls around her failed to give a reason whatsoever, let alone a good one, there was the fact they lived in the same house. Plus Lindy loved to see them doing things together, especially if it meant she could add pictures to her ever increasing 'family moments' collection album.

"Oh, is that so? Very well, we tried being civil about this, but-"

"Hey, Testarossa," a voice called from the side.

"Ritten-taicho. Is there anything I can do for you?" Fate asked, ignoring her current company in favor of the kendo captain.

"I wanted to know how's your arm. I'd like to continue our duel from last time later today, during the club meeting, but only if you can give it your all," Signum explained, then spared a glance at the five girls ganging up on Fate, "are you busy right now, or...?"

"Not at all," the blonde assured her.

As far as she was concerned, they really were. She had listened to their request and gave an answer. However, unlike them, Fate had some manners, so she took the time to ask for confirmation and take her leave properly.

"We said everything we wanted to, I think. Would you mind if I went with Ritten-taicho now?"

Four girls looked at their apparent leader, who incidentally had taken three steps back from Fate in the same instant she had heard Signum's voice. Both her and them exchanged glances and looked fearfully at the pink haired third year before turning and running away.

Fate and Signum looked at them, neither really understanding their behavior.

"You have strange friends, Testarossa. Why did they look so scared?"

"We're not really friends," the younger girl answered scratching her cheek, "and I have no idea. I don't think I've understood what they wanted either, they didn't make much sense."

"Well, let me take you to Klarer-sensei, she'll be able to tell me if your arm is completely healed."

Fate could have sworn she saw Signum's lip twitch upwards when saying the nurse's name, but the pink haired girl had turned and started to walk before she could say anything.


	8. Chapter 8

First of all, sorry for taking so long. The irony, two reviews I really wanted to reply to I couldn't as they were anonymous ones. So, I'll say it here: congratulations anon and K-n1n3 for your deductive skills. Shame on everyone else. =P  
Again, sorry about this chapter, both for taking so long and for the quality, which could have been better. On the bright side the lenght is good and there's some interesting things happening.

**-o-o-**

**-o-o-**

Nanoha was gritting her teeth in barely suppressed anger.

"Hayate, step aside," she requested.

Her friend shook her head and firmly held her ground, blocking the passage by standing in front of the door of the infirmary so that Nanoha couldn't leave the room.

"Nanoha, you need to calm down. You can't go and beat up the student council president." Hayate tried to reason.

"Watch me," the other girl challenged.

"Damn it, Arisa, a little help?" The short haired brunette looked for support.

"I don't see why I should hold Nanoha back," the short haired blonde answered, "in fact I'm more inclined to help her hunt down and beat Harlaown."

"Vita, I choose you! Stop Nanoha!" Hayate called out, the first hints of panic entering her voice.

"_I'm not a goddamn pokemon!_" The redhead effectively deafened everyone in the nurse office. Later that day Hayate would also swear she saw the window's glass crack.

Once the ringing in her ears stopped, Nanoha decided to ask gently one last time for her friend to get the hell out of her way. It must be said that the Takamachi's brand of gentleness was often confused by the rest of the world for death threats. Just like many mistake their concern for murder attempts.

Perspectives aside, what Nanoha did was glaring at Hayate while clenching her fists.

"Hayate, unless you can give me a really good reason for why I shouldn't neuter Harlaown, and honestly I doubt you can, then I suggest you move aside before I'll have to remove you myself."

The cosplay loving girl made eye contact with Suzuka, who was still observing the pictures with a critical eye together with a frowning Yuuno, and silently pleaded for her help.

"Nanoha-chan, while he definitely deserves anything you can come up with, killing Chrono-san won't solve anything. Sit down and use your head instead of your fists," the purple haired girl spoke confidently and calmly.

There was a lengthy pause during which no one moved or said anything, and for a moment it looked like Nanoha wouldn't listen. In the end, though, she huffed, crossed her arms, and sat down near Arisa, who had seemed to be supporting her approach of "murder first - ask later".

Hayate sighed in relief and slumped in a seat beside her savior who finally looked up from the photos to make eye contact with the ticking bomb known as Takamachi Nanoha.

"Now, let's examine the situation with a cool head," Suzuka started but was interrupted by Arisa who was still playing the part of Nanoha's supporter.

"What's there to examine? Mister Chrono Harlaown spends his weekend cheating on his girlfriend. Those pictures are clear enough evidence of this."

"Arisa-chan, please, don't interrupt me," Suzuka asked gently with a smile. All presents felt a shiver go down their spines.

"Now," the purple haired girl continued, "let's start with this girl Harlaown is supposedly cheating on Fate with. Do any of you know her? I mean, if we're going to throw accusation we should first make sure she's not a relative or something."

Hayate could have sworn she heard more giggles from outside that sounded like Shamal's, but no one else noticed so she chalked it up to her imagination.

"That's Amy Limietta, she graduated here last year."

The girls blinked and looked at each other before turning toward Yuuno, who had made his proclamation with his face firmly planted on the desk.

Hayate grabbed one of the pictures and looked closely at the girl that was hugging Harlaown's arm in it.

"Now that you've said it, I think I remember seeing her every now and then at school. I didn't know you were friends with any of the upperclassmen," she commented.

"I wasn't," Yuuno answered glaring at the short haired brunette, "but _someone_ made sure I'd remember this particular girl as the one I totally made a fool out of myself in front of. _Someone_ made sure I'd remember Amy Limietta's face and associate her with the most humiliating, mortifying, suicide-worth, embarrassing event of my whole life."

"Oh...Oh!" Hayate's eyes widened as she understood what Yuuno was referring to, "You mean she's the one from the party last year?"

"What party?" Vita asked looking suspiciously at her friends.

"Ah... you know... Ginga's party..." Hayate trailed off nervously waving an hand in the air as she saw Arisa's expression darkening.

It was a tacit agreement between them that no one should ever mention the party the Nakajima girl had held at the beginning of last year. While a lot of good had come out of that, as it was then that Hayate and Vita became part of Nanoha's group of friends, it was also true that what happened that night included some not-very-enjoyable moments. Including, but not limited to, Nanoha's special brand of befriending.

"That night never happened," Arisa deadpanned with a tone of finality running an hand through her short blonde hair.

Next to Yuuno, she was the other true _victim_ of that party, or rather, of Hayate's plan to live up said party.

Although if one were to hear Hayate's opinion, then the only victims were Hayate herself and Vita, who had to fight for their lives against Nanoha's overreaction when the White Devil came to avenge her friends. And if there was enough time and one continued to listen, the whole thing would become a crazy tale of an epic conflict that was more absurd than believable. But that was beside the point.

"Ok, so she's a former schoolmate," Nanoha said, "can I go and have a few words with our most esteemed president about betraying his girlfriend now?"

"Sure, and then what? You're going to look for Fate and tell her her boyfriend, who is also her childhood friend and whose mother she's friends with, is seeing someone else behind her back?" Suzuka asked rhetorically staring intently at her friend.

Nanoha opened her mouth to say something but she couldn't find the words.

"Yeah, Suzuka is right," Yuuno interjected looking apologetically at her, "no offense Nanoha, but you can be a bit... too blunt and tactless. Besides, as things are she might not even believe you right now."

"So you're saying we should do nothing?" Arisa voiced Nanoha's thoughts as she punched the table.

"Not at all, I'm just saying we should think before Nanoha-chan goes around and gets herself expelled because she beat the student council president to a pulp," Suzuka reasoned out.

"I just wanted to talk with him," said girl murmured, making her friends look at her with various degrees of disbelief.

"Do you think we're stupid or something?" Vita gave voice to what they all were thinking.

Nanoha didn't answer, she just crossed her arms and huffed, unhappy with the situation.

That was when the door to the infirmary opened.

**-o-o-**

Klarer Shamal was leaning on the door of the school infirmary, biting her hand to stifle her laughter. She knew eavesdropping wasn't a really polite thing to do, but since she was the school nurse and the students in question were arguing in her office, she felt her actions were justified.

Besides, it wasn't everyday that she someone could get one over Hayate and Suzuka, the queens of gossip.

The blonde nurse bit harder when she heard a bit of the conversation about making sure Amy Limietta wasn't a relative of Chrono's. Really, to think these girl, hell the whole school even, could make a blunder like this... Oh, she was going to enjoy this.

Putting the sheer hilarity of the situation aside, though, Shamal felt a genuine smile pull her lips at Nanoha's attitude. The protective and passionate nature of the auburn haired girl could be worrisome at times -and she was grateful her friends stopped her this time- but knowing Fate will be able to rely on such a good person was also quite the relief.

Her expression sobered a bit as she thought at the red eyed child, or rather girl now. She still remembered that day when she was just an intern and her supervisor had told her to go check a blonde child out of the hospital.

_**9 years ago-_

_Shamal walked down the corridor to the waiting room where people with minor injuries were waiting to be looked at by a doctor. Among them there was the blonde child Shamal had been tasked to get out the hospital, preferably by calling a relative who could pick her up, after all they didn't want legal problems by letting someone so young go on her own._

_The young intern couldn't help frowning at how cynic that sounded, and the frown deepened when she heard it was another child just slightly older who had brought the blonde one in before she had been convinced to leave. Really, what kind of world were they living in if children had to take care of each other while adults, _the responsible ones, _were just thinking about their paychecks?_

_Shamal got in the waiting room unconsciously glaring at everyone while looking for the little one she had been told to politely kick out. Because, really, that's how it sounded to her. She was starting to hate her work, or maybe it was just her superiors..._

_Finally her amethyst gaze fell on the child she was looking for, a little girl with long blonde hair in two messy pontails and nervous, almost fearful, red eyes that darted left and right as she... panted?_

_Shamal's own eyes narrowed as she inspected her more closely. The little one kept her left arm close to her body, her hand rubbing lightly her shirt -dirty and worn- over her stomach, her breathing was short and her eyes seemed to get out of focus every now and then._

_How the hell a doctor could ever even _think_ she was fine was beyond her._

_The blonde intern went to the child who noticed her approach and seemed to tremble at realizing she was coming closer to her. Seeing the little girl scared reaction, Shamal tried her best to put on a reassuring smile as she knelt down in front of her seat._

"_Hello little one, I'm Klarer Shamal, I'm a doctor here. What is your name?"_

"_My name is Fate," she answered in a soft shy voice._

_Shamal hummed and nodded, "and how old are you Fate?"_

"_Hum... I, I'm...six?" she answered uncertainly._

"_Ah, that's a nice age," the aspirant doctor said trying to sound reassuring and encouraging, but at the same time taking note of the obvious trouble Fate had breathing, "so, can you tell me where it hurts, Fate?"_

"_I'm fine, really, can I go home now? I'm fine."_

_Shamal was fast enough to conceal her frown in a mildly concerned expression. That...wasn't the answer she expected._

"_Well, if you're really sure you want to just go home... we'd still need to contact your parents so that they can come to pick you up," she answered, but what she was really thinking was that Fate's parents could convince their daughter to let herself be examined for whatever injuries she obviously had, "so, why don't you tell me your family name and your mom's or dad's name?"_

"_I'm fine, there's no need. I can get home by myself, I'm fine, it's not too far. I'm fine, really..."_

_Shamal observed her feeling her concern grow. There was no mistaking the fear in Fate's eyes, nor the flinch and stifled whimper when she had mentioned contacting her parents. A cold sense of dread and fury threatened to overwhelm the violet eyed woman. Taking a deep breathe, she put up a calm front in order to deal with little Fate._

"_I'm sorry but I can't let you go home alone. Listen, why don't you let me buy you a snack from the vending machine and then you tell me if there's anything I can help you with?"_

_On cue, the child's stomach choose that moment to growl loudly. Fate blushed a bit, adorably so, but she nodded silently and grabbed Shamal's offered hand with her right. It didn't escape the young intern's notice the fact that Fate still kept her left arm pressed tightly against her side._

_As soon as she could, she made Fate sit on a wheelchair and bought her the promised snack. Nothing like a treat to make a child loosen up. _

_Fate, however, must have been really hungry because she stuffed the food into her mouth with so much vigor she began choking on it. Shamal hurriedly knelt down to help her, and that was when she saw blood coming out of her mouth as she coughed._

_Swearing up a storm in her mind and calling her supervisor with a number of epithets she wasn't going to say out loud near a six year old, Shamal pushed Fate's wheelchair to the radiology department, because, damn it, she became a medic to help people, not to get rich and kick out a patient because her boss was more worried about flirting with the nurse behind the lobby's desk than doing his fucking job!_

_As it turned out, the reason Fate was coughing up blood was that she had three cracked ribs and one had punctured a lung, albeit the extent of the damage was small enough that it'd heal on his own after some rest and maybe some oxygen. That injury also explained why she was keeping her left arm pressed against her side, although her dislocated shoulder might have played a role in that too. Various bruises covering her body completed her diagnosis, along with the fact that, judging by her weight and Fate's unwitting admission, she hadn't eaten a decent meal in at least a week. _

_Shamal had already popped the blonde's shoulder back in place -and it was starting to unnerve her greatly that even then Fate didn't cry nor complain- and she was instructing the child on maintaining an upright, seated position and rest, when the head doctor barged into the room effectively breaking at least three separate hospital regulations._

"_Klarer!" he yelled, adding yet another breach of the regulations, "what is the meaning of this?"_

"_The meaning of recovering a child that obviously needs medical attention, sir? It's what I, as a medic, am sworn to do," Shamal answered with a glacial calm._

_Her boss, on the other hand, reddened and looked like he was going to explode. He grabbed her forearm and pulled her close to hiss in her ear, an obvious -and futile- attempt at not making a scene._

"_Who the hell do you think you are to go against my instructions? You're just an intern here, **I** am the medic, **I** make the decisions."_

"_With all due respect," Shamal said, without really meaning those first words, "that decision was irrational and unethical."_

"_Damn it Klarer, this is not a charity organization, we cannot took in every homeless orphan that manages to wander in! Either you find her family, if she has one, or you kick her out," he said giving his ultimatum._

"_I'm not gonna throw her in the streets." _

_In contrast to her boss getting more heated, Shamal's voice and face was turning more and more cold as their argument went on._

"_Then you'll follow her on the streets, is this what you want? Are you going to throw away your chance to become a doctor for that child?"_

_Shamal was about to finally loose it and use some not really polite nor proper words about what she thought of him, his hospital, his conduct, and his ancestry, along with a rather rude suggestion about what to do with his stethoscope, when she was interrupted by a soft voice coming from behind her._

"_Testarossa."_

_Both adults turned to look at the blonde child sitting on the bed. They had almost forgot she was there, and Shamal felt herself blush thinking about what kind of language she was about to use where little Fate could hear her._

"_My m-" she tried to say something before seemingly changing her mind and wording it differently, "I'm the daughter of Precia Testarossa."_

_The shock on the head doctor couldn't have been greater if the child had said she was a vampire alien and started fluctuating in the air spouting flames from her mouth. All of a sudden she was relieved from treating little Fate because she needed the best doctors they could spare instead of an inexperienced intern._

_Soon after Shamal was sent home, having been granted the rest of the day off. She also had the promise of a rather generous bonus being deposited on her account within the week, but all it did was souring her mood even more. She spent the evening ranting about corrupted old farts while a disconcerted Reinforce tried to calm her down._

Shamal sighed remembering that day, and a familiar sense of guilt and regret made itself known. If only she hadn't let her boss push her around, if only she had fought to remain by Fate's side, if only she had shared her suspicions sooner... maybe she could have spared the young girl further pain.

_'At least she's well now,'_ the school nurse thought with a little bittersweet smile.

And speaking of the devil, Fate herself was walking down the corridor with Signum. Shamal's smile turned into a more heartfelt one as she greeted the two.

"Klarer-sensei," the pink haired third year said, "could you have a look at Testarossa's arm? I want to make sure she's in top form for today's practice."

"But of course, it'll take just a minute," she answered with a smile looking from one girl to the other, "it's so nice to have such a conscientious student such as you, Signum. You know Fate, Signum is always helping other students and accompanying them to my office whenever someone gets injured, in fact no day goes by without her visiting me at least once."

Aaaand, there it was, that adorable slight blush as the pink haired girl coughed and looked to the side to avoid their gazes. This was really her day, Shamal thought as she opened the door to her office and went in.

"Ahhh, Shamal! Knock before you enter!" Hayate screamed in panic as she hurriedly grabbed the photos still on the table and threw them in her bento before closing it. Rice and silver halide, yum.

"This is my office Yagami, I'll come in whenever I feel like it, with or without knocking," Shamal replied with a serious face.

"...right, sorry," the short haired brunette apologized sheepishly.

The blonde doctor smiled once again, she wasn't really angry, she just needed to reaffirm her authority every once in a while. Besides she knew the outburst was due to little Fate's appearance, whom they were talking about. Shamal's smile became a smirk and a wicked gleam entered her eyes: it was time to have some fun.

"So Fate, how was your weekend?" she asked while pushing her in a chair, "did you and Chrono have fun Friday night with the house all to yourself?"

Shamal saw Signum raise an eyebrow at her question, but the pink haired senior didn't say anything. Hayate's and her friends' reactions were much more amusing as they turned their full attention to the two blondes.

"Mh, yes, it was nice," Fate answered squirming a bit as her sleeve was rolled up to allow Shamal to check her arm, "but I spent the rest of the weekend looking after Lindy. Oh, she wanted to know the name of the cooking school you went to, she was saying something about fining and possibly arresting them for fraud..."

A choked sound escaped Shamal's throat. She had almost forgotten she was in a whole lot of trouble with Reinforce for basically poisoning her boss with her home-made dinner. The blonde nurse knew Lindy wouldn't do anything against her, no, that woman would take it out on Rein and then make it so Rein herself would take care of Shamal herself. She just hoped her housemate was feeling merciful.

"You spent... the weekend with Lindy Harlaown... while Chrono himself went out having fun?"

Shamal could see both Yuuno and Suzuka trying to surreptitiously calm down Nanoha who had just uttered the question with so much contempt in her voice, that she wouldn't have been surprised if the blue eyed girl started spouting flames from her mouth. Medically curious, but not surprised.

"Yes," The red-eyed girl answered in a dubious voice. As clueless as she was, even Fate could perceive the strain in Nanoha's voice.

Moreover, both Arisa and Vita were exchanging meaningful glances with expressions matching their auburn haired friend's. And while Suzuka looked like the personification of calmness and serenity, Yuuno himself was eying the three -Nanoha more often than the other two- worriedly.

"So, uhm, Fate, how did your secret meeting go?" Hayate asked, obviously trying to change the topic before one of hotheads of their group decided to resort to drastic measures.

"I don't know. Apparently the letter was from group of five girls, and they wanted to ask me to 'stay away' from Chrono," She answered, her puzzlement clearly showing on her face, "I told them I couldn't and they went away."

Shamal reacted so fast the other girls jumped in surprise.

"What? Fate, were they bullying you?" She asked with apprehension.

"Eh? I don't think so... They weren't really well mannered, but I don't thin-"

Her answer was interrupted half-way through, however, when Shamal realized how pointless it was to ask Fate such a question. So, patting the hopeless blonde's head, the school nurse turned toward Signum and repeated her question.

"Signum, were they bullying little Fate?"

"Well, from their body language and what little I saw it certainly looked like they were trying to intimidate her," the third year student answered.

"But they didn't really do anything," Fate interjected in her usual quiet tone of voice, confused by the conclusion the others were coming to, "I mean, none of them even touched me."

"Silly little Fate," Shamal said with a sad smile and affectionately ruffling her hair, "school bulling means they act tough and steal your things."

Hayate and Suzuka could instinctively perceive_ something_ in both her words and actions. They didn't know what it was, but it was clear that whatever it is it probably played a role in how the two blondes got to know each other.

"Still, it doesn't make sense," Signum commented, "why would those girls try to keep Testarossa away from her brother?"

"Well, it's obvious," Hayate vehemently started to explain, "they're just spiteful, jea- **brother**!"

Shamal tried to keep a straight face, she really did, but they all looked poleaxed, and when she noticed that even Suzuka, the calm, serene, always composed Suzuka, had her eyes wide open in shock, she couldn't keep herself from laughing to tears.

"You didn't know it?" Signum asked the self-proclaimed queen of gossip with her version of a shocked expression, which in the case of the Kendo captain it consisted in an elegantly raised eyebrow and a tilt of her head.

"B-b-bu-but they don't look like each other at all, and they have different family names! And she keeps calling Lindy Harlaown by name," the brunette defended herself, "and how did you know this when the whole school is littered with a different version?"

Meanwhile Shamal was observing the most curious change in Nanoha's mood, from the murderous one she had been less than a minute ago to the bright smile that could light up the whole room with rainbows she was now sporting.

"Chrono told me when he mentioned she was going to apply for the kendo club. And I have no idea what rumors you're talking about, I don't listen to gossip, you should know Yagammel," Signum answered Hayate's questions in a flat tone, although a tiny little smirk pulled her lips upwards at the end.

"You still managed to hear _that,_" the brunette grumbled before turning toward her younger blonde classmate to get the answers to the questions the pink haired upperclassman hadn't responded to.

Nanoha couldn't help but notice that Fate-chan was clutching at her chest, or more specifically at the necklace that was resting under her uniform. She had noticed it last time they were in the infirmary too, when the younger girl had slipped the jacket off, but whatever pendant was hanging from the chain had remained hidden under her shirt, and back then Nanoha had found herself staring at her chest...

The young Takamachi mentally slapped herself and tried to focus on the present once more.

"Lunch break is almost over, maybe you should start getting back to class," Shamal spoke up, effectively stopping Hayate from pressing for more information, "ah, but I need to have a word with you Hayate, and you too Signum, Nanoha."

It wasn't exactly subtle, but as clueless as Fate was, and with how little the others knew about the situation, she would likely get away with it. Or maybe not, judging by the looks she was receiving while pushing the others out of her office, the only one who remained oblivious was little Fate... that girl was seriously hopeless.

As soon as the door closed, she turned to face two curious brunettes and an indifferent looking pink head.

"You knew it," Hayate accused.

"Of course I knew it," Shamal admitted unrepentantly, "I can't believe you thought... I mean, those two may differ in looks but they behave exactly the same... and you thought... pfft-"

She started to laugh once again, much to the young Yagami's chagrin, who huffed and crossed her arms.

Her friend, however, didn't care at all if she was being made fun of. In fact, being reminded of Fate-chan's true relationship with Chrono Harlaown, one that involved no romantic feelings, only served to make Nanoha feel like rainbow colored bubbles were lifting her from the ground and making her float in the air.

"Ah, as much fun as that was," Shamal went back to say while wiping away a tear, "it's a good thing that big mouth here let it slip."

Signum was blushing, she was definitely blushing, and Hayate was sorely tempted to pull out her cell and take a picture. Survival instincts, however, kicked in and prevented her from acting on that thought.

"I'm confident you can spread the word fast enough so that no one will try to bully Fate again, right Yagami?" It was worded like a question but it definitely sounded like a request.

She waited for Hayate's positive answer before addressing the other second year student in her office.

"Nanoha-chan, you might have noticed little Fate is a bit awkward with people, so would you look out for her and keep her from getting into more troubles? Also, since it seems you've taken her into your little group, I'd like for you to restrain your more inquisitive friends"

"Let me guess, I should make sure Hayate doesn't choke on her foot after she put into her mouth?" Nanoha asked while searching her amethyst eyes for any hint about what the school nurse knew.

"Hey!"

"Yes, that's exactly it Nanoha-chan," Shamal answered with a grin, ignoring the short haired girl's protests, "You see, because of some legal complications little Fate cannot change her name to Harlaown. However that's not the important...

"Listen, I know you're curious about why she calls Lindy-san by name, but I want you to promise me you won't ask her anything about it," she positively _ordered_ while looking mainly at Hayate, "it's something she doesn't need to be reminded of."

For once Hayate looked serious as she nodded her agreement.

Nanoha did the same, although she couldn't help but wonder... what happened to Fate-chan in the past? How and why was she adopted, what about her own family? Was it because of that that she could see so much loneliness and sadness in her eyes every now and then?

"Good," the blonde doctor continued, "Now run along you two, I have some things to talk about with Signum about her club injury rates."

Once again her half-lie was seen through judging by Hayate's knowing smirk, but at least Nanoha seemed too busy thinking about her new blonde friend to pay much attention to her. She idly heard Hayate saying something about going together to the Takamachi house after club activities to "hold up their end of the bargain" before the door closed.

Left alone, Shamal turned to face Signum.

"..."

"...Tell me the truth, you knew about the rumors and you knew they were going to try and threaten little Fate, right?"

"It doesn't make a difference either way," she answered keeping her blue eyes locked with her amethyst ones, "in any case, can I ask why you keep calling her that?"

"Little Fate? Well, I've met her when she was six and more or less kept in touch since then since Rein works under Lindy. I'll always remember her as the little kid who made me the kind of medic I am today."

_'And as the child I couldn't protect from getting hurt more than any medic can cure,'_ Shamal added in her mind, before banning the thought once again and looking more closely to the student standing in front of her. There was an unusual light in her eyes, one she had seen once before, but... was it...?

"Signum," she called taking a step forward coming to stand beside her and putting her hands on the pink haired girl's shoulders, "are you by any chance getting jealous?"

"Wha- I don't- I... I... I need to go back to my class, good day Klarer-sensei," Signum stammered out before bolting out of the infirmary."

Shamal chuckled.

"Patience, patience Shamal. Graduation isn't that far away..."


End file.
